The nature of future college football schedules is a cycle. First, we want to know who our teams play. Second, we want to know when they play, and finally, we want to know when they kick off. On Thursday, December 11th, the SEC gave us step two in the cycle. After releasing future opponents for 2026 through 2029 earlier in the fall, we now have the week by week 2026 schedule. However, we will have to wait until the week after Memorial Day until we find out step 3.
During May, the networks have their “upfront” presentations, where they release details on fall schedules for advertisers and investors. As you can probably guess, football plays a large part in these upfronts. During upfront season, the NFL schedule comes out, and college football’s first three weeks of the season gets announced. In addition, special dates like Black Friday also get released.
Sports media is kind of a niche interest of mine, and through years of keeping track of TV times for kickoff, I will take a crack of guessing the first three weeks of the SEC season so we can look at how wrong I was once late May comes around.
Before we get started, this is just an educated guess, so please do not make hotel or flight accommodations based on what you see in this article. However, there are a few ground rules I must share to let you know how I came up with the list.
- The Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12 have not released their schedules yet. Most non-conference games are set, however, a few conference games in weeks 1-3 could throw these predictions off.
- The 3:30 ABC slot is reserved for the SEC, however, the networks have liberty to shift those around, however we don’t see that as an issue in the first three weeks of the 2026 season.
- SEC teams must have a streaming-only non-conference game on SECN+. We assume this will stick in the future due to the launch of ESPN Unlimited and ESPN wanting to drive customers to their app. If you get SECN through a provider like DirecTV or YouTubeTV, you don’t need to buy ESPN Unlimited, you just log in with your credentials, but ESPN gets to keep all the ad money when it’s only on their app. However, schools can pick the time of their streaming game.
- SEC teams can only have two early home games per season, unless the school approves of an additional early game. So we have to “share the wealth” when it comes to noon games.
- Fox gets the first three picks of the year in the Big Ten before CBS and NBC get to pick. We know Ohio State / Michigan will be one of those. Ohio State also goes to Indiana and Oregon next year. We predict that Fox will spread the top 3 picks out and only choose one of those games, and pick Oklahoma – Michigan before CBS or NBC can get to it.
- ESPN2 will carry the US Open all day in week 1, and ESPN will have the women’s final in the afternoon in week 2, so no games can go in those slots.
- ESPN will slot the remainder of the SEC games into Early, Afternoon, Primetime, or Flex time slots sometime in June after the first three weeks are announced. That could change the outcome of the first three weeks and rivalry week as well.
Alright, seems a bit complicated right? Have no fear, you don’t have to remember all that. Let’s get into it. For week 1, we have Mizzou continuing the trend of opening up on Thursday night, and we have Louisville and Ole Miss’s neutral site game moved to Sunday night, as ABC likes to show a Sunday night game on Labor Day weekend. ESPN also likes to show games on Friday night, so a couple of these games could be moved around.
Week One:
- SECN Thur UA Pine Bluff at Missouri
- ABC 3:30 Baylor vs. Auburn (Atlanta)
- ABC 7:30 Clemson at LSU
- ESPN 3:30 East Carolina at Alabama
- SECN 12:45 Texas State at Texas
- SECN 4:15 UL Monroe at Miss State
- SECN 7:45 Florida Atlantic at Florida
- ESPNU 4:00 Missouri State at Texas A&M
- ESPNU 8:00 Kent State at South Carolina
- SECN+ North Alabama at Arkansas
- SECN+ Tennessee State at Georgia
- SECN+ Youngstown State at Kentucky
- SECN+ UTEP at Oklahoma
- SECN+ Furman at Tennessee
- SECN+ Austin Peay at Vanderbilt
- ABC 7:30 Sun Louisville vs. Ole Miss (Nashville)
In week two, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Miss State all go on the road. Tennessee goes to Georgia Tech, Arkansas and Missouri go to Big 12 foes Utah and Kansas respectively, Miss State travels to Minnesota, and Oklahoma goes to the Big House as previously mentioned. These games are controlled by the home conference’s media partners. Since the ACC is only with ESPN, it’s easier to include with the SEC games. However, the Big 12 shares rights between ESPN, Fox, and TNT. Meanwhile, the Big Ten shares rights with Fox, CBS, and NBC, with BTN, Peacock, and FS1 in the action as well.
Week Two:
- ABC 12:00 Tennessee at Georgia Tech
- ABC 3:30 Alabama at Kentucky
- ABC 7:30 Ohio State at Texas
- ESPN 7:00 Arizona State at Texas A&M
- SECN 12:45 Delaware at Vanderbilt
- SECN 4:15 Charlotte at Ole Miss
- SECN 7:45 Louisiana Tech at LSU
- ESPN2 4:00 Western Kentucky at Georgia
- ESPN2 8:00 Arkansas at Utah
- ESPNU 8:00 Southern Miss at Auburn
- Fox 12:00 Oklahoma at Michigan
- Fox 4:00 Missouri at Kansas
- FS1 7:00 Miss State at Minnesota
- SECN+ Campbell at Florida
- SECN+ Towson at South Carolina
In week three, conference play gets into high gear with five matchups, meanwhile Alabama hosts Florida State. Someone is going to be upset with a noon game, and we give it to the new rookie coaches. However, we think Lane Kiffin returning to Oxford is perfect for College Gameday and the primetime game. Imagine how great the signs will be!
Week Three:
- ABC 12:00 Florida at Auburn
- ABC 3:30 Florida State at Alabama
- ABC 7:30 LSU at Ole Miss
- ESPN 3:30 Georgia at Arkansas
- ESPN 7:00 Kentucky at Texas A&M
- ESPN2 8:00 NC State at Vanderbilt
- SECN 12:45 New Mexico at Oklahoma
- SECN 4:15 Kennesaw State at Tennessee
- SECN 7:45 Miss State at South Carolina
- SECN+ Troy at Missouri
- SECN+ UTSA at Texas
And bonus time, rivalry weekend. Rivalry weekend is known for Black Friday action, creating two days worth of college football frenzy. The SEC announced already that Texas and Texas A&M would play on Black Friday, and we think the Egg Bowl will remain on Black Friday as well as both teams play FCS opponents the week before. And before you get in your feelings about no Egg Bowl on Thanksgiving, I just don’t see ESPN wanting to put a SEC game up against the NFL on NBC now that they control all the rights. When the SEC was with CBS, ESPN had limited opportunities to show SEC games as they couldn’t go up against CBS. Now with ABC, ESPN has full say on the matter and I don’t see a heated SEC rivalry game ever returning to Thanksgiving night. And as a reminder, Florida vs. Florida State and South Carolina at Clemson are ACC controlled games.
Rivalry Week (Week 14):
- ABC 3:30 BF Miss State at Ole Miss
- ABC 7:30 BF Texas at Texas A&M
- ABC 12:00 Florida at Florida State
- ABC 3:30 Georgia Tech at Georgia
- ABC 7:30 Auburn at Alabama
- SECN 12:45 Louisville at Kentucky
- SECN 4:15 LSU at Arkansas
- SECN 7:45 Tennessee at Vanderbilt
- ESPN 3:30 Oklahoma at Missouri
- ESPN 7:00 South Carolina at Clemson
Alright, there’s your early prediction on the first three weeks of the season and rivalry week. Let’s bookmark this article so we can see how wrong I was come May and June! And as a reminder, this is just a guess, so save your angry tweets to the SEC admin then.
