Who should Kentucky football’s 3 permanent SEC rivals be? Opinions vary

Greg Sankey says Southeastern Conference football programs can expect to learn midway through the current season who their three permanent league opponents will be starting in 2026.

Speaking last month on the SEC Network’s “Paul Finebaum Show,” Sankey, the SEC commissioner, said “we anticipate presenting the 2026 football schedule midseason (of 2025) to our schools.” The public release of the 2026 schedule will come in December, Sankey added.

Last month, the SEC announced that it would move from playing the current eight league football games to nine such contests in 2026. The league also said it will adopt a scheduling format in which each league team plays three conference rivals annually along with six rotating opponents.

Sankey said the SEC has several factors it will emphasize in assigning permanent foes.

“What we’ll do is, we’ll look at historic rivalries — that’s a really important component,” Sankey said. “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.”

I will suggest that the television appeal of specific matchups will also play a role in the SEC’s assignment of permanent foes — and I fear that will negatively impact Kentucky in determining the fate of one long-running Wildcats’ rivalry.

As we wait for the SEC to reveal the annual foes for its teams, the newest parlor game in college football is predicting how the Southeastern Conference will make those assignments.

Bear with me, and I will share below my guess on what the SEC’s assignment of permanent football foes for each of its schools will look like.

Among the national college football pundits who have ventured guesses, there are three teams that come up most often in projections of who Kentucky’s annual rivals will be:

• USA Today’s Paul Myerberg projects that UK’s annual opponents will be Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee.

• On3’s Andy Staples envisions Georgia, Mississippi State and South Carolina.

• At Athlon Sports, writer Steven Lassan predicts Mississippi State, South Carolina and Tennessee.

• Writing for Saturday Down South, Spenser Davis assigns Mississippi State, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

• Podcast host Michael W. Bratton — better known as “SEC Mike” — forecasts Mississippi State, South Carolina and Tennessee for the Wildcats.

• Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports puts forth Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi State.

• Seth Emerson of The Athletic predicts Arkansas, Mississippi State and Tennessee.

If you based it on a tally of the seven pundits listed, UK’s three permanent SEC rivals moving forward would be Mississippi State (six “votes”), South Carolina (five) and Tennessee (four).

As I have noted before, I think the three SEC foes that “matter the most” to Kentucky backers are Tennessee, Florida and Vanderbilt.

A border rival, Tennessee is UK’s premier in-league adversary in (almost) all sports.

Florida’s 31- game win streak (1987 through 2017) over Kentucky served to elevate the value of beating the Gators among UK fans. The Big Blue Nation has relished Kentucky’s four wins over Florida since 2018.

Located in Nashville, Vanderbilt is a convenient trip for UK fans, especially those in western Kentucky. Wildcats backers have long “taken over” FirstBank Stadium when UK visits Music City.

To remain in good standing as a sports columnist working in the SEC footprint, it is mandatory I take on the challenge of assigning three permanent rivals for all 16 SEC teams.

So here goes:

• Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee

Comment: I went back and forth between LSU and the more-geographically logical Mississippi State (Starkville is only 82.3 miles from the Alabama campus) as the third choice. But I think the SEC’s media partner, ESPN, will want yearly games between the Crimson Tide and the Fighting Tigers.

• Arkansas: Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M

• Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi State

• Florida: Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee

• Georgia: Auburn, Florida, South Carolina

• Kentucky: Florida, South Carolina, Vanderbilt

Comment: I hope I am wrong about Tennessee not being a permanent opponent for UK. But my guess is Alabama and Vanderbilt are locks to be UT annual foes and that ESPN will prefer Florida-Tennessee as a yearly game over UT-Kentucky.

• LSU: Alabama, Mississippi, Mississippi State

Comment: LSU has some degree of rivalry with Arkansas, Florida (its permanent cross-division foe in the era of SEC East and West divisions) and Texas A&M. I prioritized Alabama-LSU and proximity with the two Mississippi schools.

• Mississippi: LSU, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt

• Mississippi State: Auburn, LSU, Mississippi

Comment: While geographically sensible, competitively that would be a tough draw for MSU.

• Missouri: Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina

• Oklahoma: Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M

• South Carolina: Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri

• Tennessee: Alabama, Florida, Vanderbilt

• Texas: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M

• Texas A&M: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas

• Vanderbilt: Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee

So, UK fan, who would you like to see as Kentucky’s three permanent SEC rivals?

This story was originally published September 4, 2025 at 5:36 PM.

Mark Story

Lexington Herald-Leader

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Mark Story has worked in the Lexington Herald-Leader sports department since Aug. 27, 1990, and has been a Herald-Leader sports columnist since 2001. I have covered every Kentucky-Louisville football game since 1994, every UK-U of L basketball game but three since 1996-97 and every Kentucky Derby since 1994. Support my work with a digital subscription