Most important 2022 conference game for every SEC West program

Earlier this week, I looked at the best (or most interesting, to me!) SEC non-conference games in 2022, but without a doubt, the premier games every autumn are the conference matchups. The rivalries. The trap games. Potential upset spots. 

Today, I look at the most important 2022 conference game for every SEC West school. 

Alabama — Oct. 8 vs. Texas A&M

This one has been circled since the Aggies stunned the Crimson Tide last season in a 41-38 shootout, and the matchup only became spicer after the very public Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher spat. Alabama has some tricky conference road games in November (at LSU and Ole Miss in back-to-back weeks) but as it stands, Texas A&M is the only preseason Top 10 team on its schedule. With all the intrigue and off-field storylines, this game will generate a crazy viewership number, but Vegas (which I agree with) has Alabama has an early 16-point favorite. 

Auburn — Oct. 1 vs. LSU

The most important game on the schedule for Bryan Harsin is Week 3 vs. Penn State. That’s a game the Tigers really, really need to win. But in terms of conference matchups, a home date with LSU stands out as a potential make-or-break game for Auburn in 2022. The Tigers open the season with five straight home games. If they can manage to beat LSU, at worst they should be 4-1 with some confidence entering a tough, but not impossible next month on the schedule. They’ll lose at Georgia, but at Ole Miss, Arkansas and at Mississippi State are all potentially winnable games. Conversely, lose to LSU and UGA in back-to-back weeks to kickstart another painful streak and Harsin may not make it to Halloween.

Arkansas — Sept. 24 vs. Texas A&M (in Dallas)

We’ll find out fairly quickly if the Razorbacks can continue their 2021 momentum into the fall of 2022, as they open the season with Cincinnati and South Carolina. Both those games are at home, though, so there’s a decent chance Sam Pittman’s Hogs will be 3-0 before it rolls into Jerry World for their annual rivalry game with the Aggies. They won 20-10 last season and the game this year could be another pivot point (potential quality bowl vs. a .500 team) in their season. 

LSU — Oct. 22 vs. Ole Miss

The Tigers have a tricky October slate with several potential games that could qualify as “most important” for their 2022 season. I was tempted to pick their Oct. 8 home date with Tennessee but landed on their rivalry with the Rebels to end October. LSU got walloped by Ole Miss last season, so this is a chance to get a little payback — but also enter the bye week and a brutal November with some confidence before games against Alabama, at Arkansas, a feisty UAB squad and then at Texas A&M to finish the season. 

Mississippi State — Nov. 24 at Ole Miss

Among the most heated rivalries in all of sports, the Bulldogs have lost consecutive Egg Bowls, so Mike Leach could really use a win here to cap Year 3 in Starkville. Mississippi State has a veteran squad in 2022, but with a schedule that includes the SEC West plus games against Georgia and Kentucky, the Thanksgiving Day showdown with Ole Miss could be the difference between making a bowl or staying home for Christmas and potentially looking for a new head coach. 

Ole Miss — Oct. 22 at LSU

The Rebels have one of the most lopsided schedules in all of college football, with a cake start, one tough game in early October (vs. Kentucky) and then a brutal finish (at LSU, at Texas A&M, Alabama, at Arkansas and Mississippi State). They could (maybe should) be 7-0 when they get to Baton Rouge, and we’ll find out if Ole Miss can maintain its winning ways and compete for a SEC West title or suffer a second-half backslide — ala Auburn in 2021. 

Texas A&M — Oct. 1 at Mississippi State

We’ll find out just how good the Aggies are when they host Miami in Week 3 and their showdown with the Razorbacks the following Saturday (as mentioned above) looms large. But I didn’t want to pick the same game twice, so no Alabama here, either. Instead, a road game at Mississippi State to kickstart October stands out on A&M’s schedule. The Aggies lost in Starkville in 2020, and they need to avoid a similar fate this fall or else October could be the start of a tough month with road games at Alabama and South Carolina and then a home date with Ole Miss, which beat Texas A&M last season, too.