Texas to play rivals Texas A&M, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Georgia in first SEC season

The 2024 SEC football schedule is set to be partially unveiled in a special on the SEC Network on Wednesday night, with the opponents being announced by the league. And some of the opponents are already leaking.

The conference will expand to 16 teams in 2024 as Oklahoma and Texas formally make their departure from the Big 12 to join the SEC. As a result, the 2024 SEC football schedule will look a little different.

The league decided this spring not to expand to a nine-game conference slate just yet.

However, with the league remaining at eight games and still expanding, the traditional format of one permanent cross-division rival will be eschewed. In fact, the conference will release a schedule without divisions altogether, so it’ll be the first time in a long time we see more SEC East vs. SEC West matchups in the schedule.

Inside Texas reported a few of the Texas opponents on the 2024 SEC football schedule. The Longhorns will play road games at Arkansas and Texas A&M, as well as Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl and Georgia at home.

That will give Texas quite the introduction to the league.

Of course, the Longhorns have already gotten a brief taste of what the SEC might be like in recent years. Texas hosted Alabama during the 2022 season, proving just about as much as the Crimson Tide could handle.

Even with injuries to starting quarterback Quinn Ewers and backup quarterback Hudson Card during the game, Texas came ever-so-close to upsetting Alabama. The Crimson Tide needed a two-minute drive engineered by No. 1 NFL Draft pick Bryce Young to get into range for a game-winning field goal, winning 20-19.

The two programs will meet again this fall, too, with the return end of the home and home in Tuscaloosa, Ala., scheduled for Sept. 9.

Meanwhile, the addition of Texas to the 2024 schedule for Georgia means the national champions will have a bit more difficult a road than the one they face in 2023. The back-to-back national champions currently have a schedule that ranks No. 31 in difficulty during the upcoming season, according to the ESPN Football Power Index (FPI).

Importantly, the 2024 SEC football schedule also keeps the annual Red River Rivalry game intact, one of college football’s few true neutral site games between bitter rivals.

The full 2024 SEC football schedule reveal will begin at 7 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.