SEC unveils new foes for conference teams

The SEC announced each school’s additional two league football games on Friday, highlighted by Florida traveling to Texas A&M and Tennessee’s trip to Auburn if the upcoming season is played.

The SEC voted earlier this month to play a 10-game league schedule this season with no nonconference games. The full schedule will be released next week.

The SEC added two additional games with a not-yet-defined system in which the league tried to make its 14 teams’ schedules as balanced as possible. Each SEC school normally plays eight league games — all six divisional opponents, a permanent cross-divisional opponent and a rotating cross-divisional opponent.

“We made every effort to create a schedule that is as competitive as possible and builds on the existing eight Conference games that had already been scheduled for 2020,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. “This schedule is a one-year anomaly that we have developed under unique circumstances presented by the impact of COVID-19.”

Defending national champion LSU, which faces Florida annually as its permanent cross-divisional foe, added a home game against Missouri and will also play on the road at Vanderbilt.

Alabama, which was already scheduled to face Georgia this season as its rotating cross-divisional foe, will pick up a home game against Kentucky and a road game at Missouri as its two additional league games. The Crimson Tide will face four of the top 13 teams in the preseason coaches’ poll: No. 4 Georgia, No. 5 LSU, No. 11 Auburn and No. 13 Texas A&M.

Georgia, which already was playing Alabama and Auburn from the SEC West, will play Mississippi State at home and Arkansas on the road. The Bulldogs will play only three SEC teams ranked in the preseason coaches’ poll. Florida’s slate in 2020 will include games against Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M, all ranked in the top 13 of the preseason coaches’ poll.

Tennessee’s two additional league games will come against Texas A&M at home and Auburn on the road, meaning the Vols will play five games against teams ranked in the top 13 of the coaches’ poll.

Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee were the only three teams in the league to each have two teams ranked in the preseason coaches’ poll added to their schedule.

It won’t be an easy first year for three new SEC coaches. Arkansas will play six teams ranked in the preseason coaches’ poll in Sam Pittman’s first season; new Mississippi State coach Mike Leach’s team will play five, including road games at Alabama, Georgia and LSU; and first-year Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin’s squad also will play five.

The SEC’s league-only schedule is slated to kick off on Sept. 26, and teams can begin practice on Aug. 17.

Below is a complete list of each school’s two additional games:

• Alabama: Kentucky at home, Missouri on the road

• Arkansas: Georgia at home, Florida on the road

• Auburn: Tennessee at home, South Carolina on the road

• Florida: Arkansas at home, Texas A&M on the road

• Georgia: Mississippi State at home, Arkansas on the road

• Kentucky: Ole Miss at home, Alabama on the road

• LSU: Missouri at home, Vanderbilt on the road

• Ole Miss: South Carolina at home, Kentucky on the road

• Mississippi State: Vanderbilt at home, Georgia on the road

• Missouri: Alabama at home, LSU on the road

• South Carolina: Auburn at home, Ole Miss on the road

• Tennessee: Texas A&M at home, Auburn on the road

• Texas A&M: Florida at home, Tennessee on the road

• Vanderbilt: LSU at home: Mississippi State on the road