Greg Sankey details how SEC will decide permanent opponents, timeline for new schedule release

After years of discussions, the SEC is officially making the move toward a nine-game conference schedule starting in 2026. The slate will now include three permanent opponents and six rotating opponents, as well as one “high quality” Power Four team on the docket.

As for when fans will find out what the new schedule will look like, Greg Sankey said the league is still aiming for the December release date. He cited the success of the reveal show in years past, but said there’s still plenty more work left to do.

Speaking on The Paul Finebaum Show, Sankey also discussed how the conference will decide permanent opponents. He said geography and historic rivalries would play roles. Sankey pointed out the number of high-profile rivalry games within the SEC and said preserving them will be a priority.

“One of the things we can do by playing more games is, it does even out the schedule balance,” Sankey said. “Now, you’re never going to have a perfectly equal competitive balance. But the more games you play, the more balanced it is across the league. Yep, it’s harder, but playing more games makes that balance better. You’ll remember, we talked about in divisions, there’s a great disparity between the winning percentages even within the divisions. A team’s schedule could be heavily weighted.

“So what we’ll do is, we’ll look at historic rivalries – that’s a really important component. We have a lot of those. In fact, in many ways, we’re uniquely positioned to honor those historic rivalries. So those become annual opponents on a schedule. Not everyone has three, but that’s the basis is three annual opponents. Geography may dictate some of that, and then as you go down the line, the remaining opportunities to have annual opponents kind of fill out the roster. And then, you look at the six. Remember, they’ll rotate more quickly. Our fans will see their team play every conference member every two years, and every four years, our fans will be able to see their team play at home against every conference opponent. Those are great things.”

Greg Sankey: SEC aiming for December schedule release

Greg Sankey also confirmed he expects schools to learn their 2026 schedule mid-year this season, with plans to announce it in full in December. He called it another opportunity to draw “interest and celebration” for the league, which is why the SEC has traditionally announced opponents in the summer and revealed the full schedule at a later date.

“We anticipate presenting the 2026 football schedule mid-season to our schools,” Sankey said. “We think that December announcement date has worked great. … We’ll continue to look at that December for the full release. But a lot of work to be done between now and then.

“There’s been a lot of pre-work. We have had great work among our staff. … We’ll be rapid, but remember, when we went in Destin two years ago, we took a couple more weeks and we had that mid-June announcement of opponents. And then, we had a later announcement of the schedule. So we want to create opportunities for interest and celebration, and we’ll do much the same in the weeks and months ahead.”