Andy & Ari On3 - SEC's ANNUAL OPPONENTS starting in 2026 | Chris Low's Latest

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

On Monday morning, Chris Low broke the news of who the SEC will be playing as its annual opponents beginning in 2026. Chris joins Andy & Ari on Monday to break it all down right here. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/ANWMQKulLXE Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River BaileyGuest: Chris Low Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Big news this Monday morning list of annual opponents for the next four seasons is out, thanks to on three's Chris Lowe, who is joining us from the golf course. He's just breaking stories and hitting nine irons. What's up, Chris? Hitting nine irons, but not well. Not necessarily well, Andy. So let's be factual with it. Well, the thing is, you're doing your job very well because you've got the list of annual opponents with the SEC is not announcing until tomorrow night. And it's interesting because I think, you know, you told us that it was going to be, you know, based on competitive equity, based on geography, based on tradition. So obviously things like Alabama, Tennessee, protected, Georgia Auburn, protected. These were the things that we knew would be protected. But we didn't know what was going to happen with the ones, the third opponent for a lot of schools. And, you know, I think you look at Kentucky is a good example.

So Kentucky now playing Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina, if I'm not mistaken. That's a tough road for Mark Stoops and Company. Yeah. And let's be clear, because I was reminded about 10 times over the last month, that these opponents are not permanent opponents, but annual opponents. And that's something that all fans need to sort of keep in mind here. Every four years, these opponents will be re-evaluated, reassessed, to make sure that there is that competitive balance,

that there's not one team, whoever it might be, that you're loaded up or vice versa, you know, a team that's playing some teams on an annual basis that, you know, you should be probably playing better or stronger teams. The other thing,

they went back from 20 to 23, 20, 21, 22, 23, and looked at conference games to try to get an idea, to build a metric and really sort of rank the teams. Now, I know people say, wait a minute, how'd you do that with OU and Texas? I think they did that through their play in league,

play in the Big Trail. And just tried to sort of rank the teams when they came up with the annual foes to be as fair as they possibly could. Now, you're not going to, you guys know this, you're not going to satisfy everybody. Someone's going to be mad. Someone's going to think they got the short and the stick. I think the thing to remember most about this,

we haven't seen the whole schedule. And you look at your annual foes right now, I don't care who you are, it's going to look a lot different when they throw in the other six rotational foes when you look at the schedule in its entirety. But hey, I like this. I like this format, guys. We're going to see more

games that we haven't gotten to see me. To me, it's ludicrous that George and Alabama have it played more the regular season than they have. We're going to get to see that match up more. We're going to get to see Auburn in Florida. We're going to see Tennessee and Auburn. Georgia hasn't played Texas in him

yet in college station. I like what the SEC's doing. I like the way they've done it. There's no perfect way. Everyone's not going to be happy, as I said, but I still think this schedule and the way they created it is a lot more representative of a true conference. Chris, I was looking at the list that you put out, and first of all, I just wanted to public say, well done. I mean, that was awesome the way you piecemealed it together and got this list out here a few days. Nothing really jumps out to me, Andy, you can jump in here too. But like, is there, when you were putting the list together, was

Is there anything that you kind of like, oh, I'm not sure I would have done that? Or does it basically look exactly the way that it should? There were a few surprises. I don't think, and we go back to Nick Saban, when he was still Alabama, and he said it very publicly. Wait a minute. You're telling me we're going to play Tennessee, Auburn, and LSU every year. So I had a feeling that we would not see LSU among Alabama's annuals. We're not.

They're not among Alabama's three annuals. that is a game going back a decade or more that's produced so many memorable games. But you're still, again, going back to the rotational games, you're still going to get to see that game a lot. You're just not going to see it, at least for the next four years, every year. So that was the one. I think Andy brought up to Kentucky. I thought Kentucky might end up being with Andy, South Carolina, and Tennessee, but they do get Florida. Well, again, and Andy, one thing I want to say, I'll let you.

You know, we think of brands, and I'm guilty of this as anybody. We think, all right, Auburn and Florida, those brands. Well, if you look at their records from 20 to 23, it had been that good. Yeah. And that's the thing. The last year of Dan Mullen and then the first two years of Billy Napier were not great for Florida, which explains why they probably didn't get as tough a draw, which probably explains why there's no Florida, Tennessee every year.

But I'll go back, and Ari and I were talking about this before we came on with you. like we're looking at these things historically but we kind of need to look at it right now because so Auburn we knew they were going to get Alabama in Georgia and it was always like okay you don't want to overdo it with Auburn because they already have two really tough ones and so you give them Vandy and it's like wait a second Vandy's tough now yeah yeah nobody's raising her hand to play Clark Lees Vanderbill Club right now I can promise you that and we got to live in the moment and when you put these schedules together you're exactly right. Even a school like Tennessee, you know, Tennessee, 18, 19, 20, Josh came in 21. They were okay in 21. In the last couple of years, they've been a really good football team. And I think when you look at their schedule, I've already had people email me and say, well, Tennessee got the best end of the deal here because they're playing Kentucky, Vandy, and Alabama every year. Again, I go back to what I said a minute ago about Vanderbilt. What is Vandibault right now? What will they be next year? I don't think Clark Lee is going away.

Diego Pavia might be. He says this last year. Yeah, but I think it's also highly functional that you do this every four years in order to continue to keep it equitable because, you know, there are certain games on this list that are going to remain for 100 years. And the one thing that I was kind of worried about, and Andy and I talked about this, Chris, you know, months ago when we had to start envisioning this is I didn't want anybody in the SEC to overthink it either. You didn't want them to miss out on a traditional rivalry or do something in the name of competitive, because rivalries are supposed to be hard. And the one thing I was relieved to see when you were putting this list together, Chris, is that all the traditional big-time games that we absolutely have to have were included. And there was no egregious oversight.

Like, could you imagine a world where, like, A&M was not on Texas's list or something like that? I don't know if that would have been possible, but I'm happy. Part of the reason they're doing this is so A&M can play Texas every year. But, yeah, it's interesting. Chris, I think A&M in Arkansas got the toughest draw just looking at this, because they both have the same three. And it's, it's Missouri, Texas, and LSU. That does seem like the toughest set of opponents. I thought so too, Andy. You know, when I was able to put them together, those were those were two of the annual foes. But again, and I want to, you know, warn all of us, we haven't seen

what the nine look like for all those schools. It may look a lot different once we get to see the nine for all the schools. And as I already pointed out, and I was scolded several times, permanent but annual and so it could change and probably will change four years from now but i uh i do think this is probably the fairest way to do it you know one of the other factors that was point out to me in putting these together was if a school has a non-conference power for game on the road then that may be affected too in fact i think you saw danny white at tennessee say this weekend that they would have five cc games next year five cc whole games because they're playing at Georgia Tech. So as they put together this first schedule, 2026, they had to factor that to the

equation, too, about who was playing where and when as far as their non-conference late. So you may see like when, say, Georgia has to play at Georgia Tech or South Carolina has to play at Clemson, that would be the kind of year that they would get five SEC home games. That's right. The five-fourth thing is new for the SEC, the Big Ten and the Big 12 been doing it for for a while. But Chris, I was thinking about this. Did they model this out with the other six included? Was that part of the equation as they figured out what the annual opponents were going to be? Oh, yeah. No, I think the whole thing was, they looked at everything. I mean, they wanted to be, I know they had metrics and charts as they looked at annuals and how they would put together

the rotational. Yeah. And the big thing they wanted to do, Andy, and I can't stress this enough, is you play every team home and away twice in a four-year span. Yeah. And that's the thing that I think was most important. That and protecting, as already pointed out traditional robberies, because that is the fabric of college football. Certainly the SEC, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Ole Miss Mississippi State, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia. If we ever get away, and I know there's been all sorts of models about playoffs and playing games once we get to the playoffs, Man, if we ever get away from those games, what are we doing?

Yeah. And the thing is, I always look at Auburn, Georgia, and Tennessee, Alabama, were the games that were protected for years and years. And it actually made the SEC's divisional schedules really boring. So that was the need for change. And that's why, you know, I think Texas A&M proposed this initially in 2019. And so this has been quite a process to get to this. But Chris, how did you put this together?

without revealing sources, of course. But how did you do this? Well, you know, a lot of it was common sense. I'd say there are a lot of people out there who were sort of drawing up their grid. You knew Bama and Auburn were going to play. Bama in Tennessee. You knew Florida and Georgia were going to play. So I'd say 50% of it or more was already done because I knew how important it was to the SEC

to protect traditional rivals. And then from there, you just sort of back around and call people. You've known. I mean, I'm old, so there's a lot of people around. and, you know, it's, it's, after you get 70, 80% of it done, you just sort of start filling in the blanks best you can. Yeah. That was, I mean, a pretty incredible work because it was like, I felt like it was like the, the movie, the Zodiac, where they had the big board up there and they were putting all the pieces together. I've been talking to Chris on the phone about this for the last few weeks, so I knew, I knew he was close.

And when the graphic popped, I was like, oh, here we go. He finally got it. Well, that's why you have Chris Lowe on three. That's why you're here, and we're so happy you're here, Chris. Thank you for being here. Chris, please hit them straight. I believe your force is due to go to the green now. So we'll talk to you soon.

You guys have a good day. All right, it's good to catch up. Thanks, Chris. All right, so let's look at this infotality. No Alabama LSU every year. I don't like that. No Florida, Tennessee. I don't like that.

I get it, and I get that they're going to play twice every four years. I would still like to see them play every year. Yeah. Yeah. It is kind of a difficult thing because when you look back at the last five years, like I think that the Alabama LSU game, maybe Alabama, Georgia to the same extent, but certainly Alabama LSU was like the defining crown of what SEC football represented.

You had two teams. Oh, for the last 15 years, it has been. And how many epic? More than that, the last 17 years. brought something up incorrectly in videos yesterday when you had to change it, but now it's going to be correct, Andy. And I saw a video of LSU and Alabama playing each other and all the players who were on that field in 2020 or 2019.

Yeah. I think it was 19. Yeah. It was Joe Burrow and Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase and Patrick Queen and all the, you know, Jerry Judy or whatever. I mean, there was. Yeah, I don't know what. Jaylon Waddle. Yeah, it was great game.

And it was like all these, all these players that are like NFL pro bowlers now. and it's like, that's kind of, you know, going to be something that we miss. But I think that they did strike a pretty good balance from my perspective. You're the resident SEC expert, but they did a good job of preserving the games. Well, they kept the ones they absolutely had to. Adam in the chat goes, rivals can evolve and have, which is a great point. Because Alabama, LSU, and Florida, Tennessee, the two I just mentioned, were products of the SEC's divisional system. Those were not huge rivals before divisions.

made them that way. And so you may see some new rivalries emerge out of this. You know, I do hate losing Tennessee, Georgia right as it's getting fun. Like that Tennessee Georgia game the other day was amazing. You're going to get it twice every four years, but it's still, it's not the same. And these teams are close together. They have played a bunch. But yeah, so we may see, like, I'm trying to think of what, Ole Miss Oklahoma, which is one that seems a little out of place, that may turn into a great rivalry over the next few years. We don't know.

If you look at the list, too, it's very easy to talk about who you may not have. But, like, that's a perfect example, Andy, of emerging rivalries that could come up because what's the number one ingredient for rivalry? It's familiarity and you're seeing them every year. And I look at some of these games, and, you know, I'm certainly happy to see that Texas and Arkansas

are going to be playing every year. I think that that's an interesting. Well, Texas was the easiest one. Texas, and maybe that will change over the years. But Texas, if you just want to make it traditional, make it about rivalries, make it about college football history, they should play Oklahoma, Texas, A&M, and Arkansas every year. Like when all this changes in four years for everybody else,

it shouldn't change for Texas. Yeah, and there are certain teams on here, like you said, Andy, that won't change. And that's good. But the fact that we got Texas and Arkansas back annually is a huge positive for nonsensical conference. It's so huge for Arkansas, too, because Arkansas, you know, has been in the SEC since 1992. They've tried, you know, the LSU, the boot, and they played some really good games. And then Missouri comes in and they try to have that kind of border rivalry that Arkansas people have never found anybody they hate as much as they hate Texas. And so this is perfect.

You also have to acknowledge, too, guys. It's important to know as we sit here and break down this year's SEC, and we look at the teams. And Andy and I had this discussion in my living room last night about how there are six or seven teams that can conceivably win the SEC this year. The balance of power in the conference is shifting dramatically. And it's not that Alabama and Georgia and those guys aren't going to be good every year moving forward, but the types of teams that can actually win the conference now are changing. And it's not just going to be Alabama and LSU and Georgia every year. Like I think that we're going to start to see, you know, new teams pop up. And it's going to be it's probably an incredibly challenging time to do this because you don't

really know like as you alluded to earlier with vanderbilt who knows what vanderbilt will be in three years but how what if missou is really really good this year and like this is the first year of a trend in which they're an annual 10 and that's why it wouldn't be the first year that's the thing yeah yeah yeah be like the third year yeah so that's why i said i thought a and m got the toughest draw and arkansas got the toughest draw because they're both playing lSU and Texas and then Missouri's the third for both of them. As long as Eli Drinkwitz is at Missouri, Missouri is a scary team to have on your schedule every single year.

Yeah. And I thought the thing that you were talking about with Florida was interesting, too, of like how, you know, the last four years haven't gone the way that Florida planned, which may have impacted their, but also Florida plays Florida State every year. You have to take that into account. And then there's geography because, for example, Alabama and Mississippi State, those are the two closest together SEC schools. They're separated by the least distance of any of the schools.

Florida gets South Carolina. South Carolina is geographically the closest school to Florida. So it seems like they kind of defaulted to that along with the competitive equity. Yeah. And one point you made too, but before we got on this video, I wanted to put out there is in a world of nonsensical conference alignment now. Like the SEC is still as geographically contiguous at least of any conference in there. And it's like, I know that Austin and Lexington don't necessarily strike you as, you know, deep southern towns. But like, it is cool to see that there is an emphasis on geography because that is the, you know, that's in the DNA of the sport.

And I feel like part of the reason why people are struggling with the evolution of the sport at the moment is because we're losing that tribalism, that, that, that, the localization of the sport in a way that, you know, really drove it for a hundred years. So the fact that the SEC is, you know, emphasizing, hey, if you're a highway, drive away from this team you weren't going to play them that reinvigorates rivalries that you know invigorates fan bases and i think emphasizes a really important piece of the sport that we have been losing track of the last year so so we mentioned oklahoma olmiss i'm just trying to figure out what what what's going to emerge out of this like what what are we going to be glad that they matched them up every single year that's not a normal one that's not something we're used to uh i like georgia south carolina annually again like like back in the

SEC East Divisional days, because I always thought they played some fun games. Ole Miss Oklahoma is fun. That could be a lot of fun. That's a lot of fun. I'm trying to look at which are new in terms of every single year. And again, I think it was very savvy to be a four-year annual thing than it was a permanent thing. Well, it didn't need to be permanent. And I realize it's probably a pain in the ass for them to go back and do this every four years.

But the thing is, if something emerges. So let's say Oklahoma and Ole Miss play four classic games. in a row, then you just keep that. Yeah. Yeah, like that's the thing about the annual. What if this is perfect? They don't have to change it. They're giving themselves an option to change it. Who knows? Four years down the line, you might not want to. But I, I see some teams have harder draws than others, and I see some teams has easier ones. Andy, I think from a practicality standpoint, you know, there are a few things that you would have liked to see that you didn't see. You know, I think Tennessee, Georgia, for instance, would have been a really cool thing to

have there. But I don't look at anybody here and say, wow, that team got screwed or wow, that team really made out like bandits. I think they did a really good job with this. I also think if you're a fan of an SEC school, your home schedule, your team's home schedule is just going to be more fun and more diverse than it has been. I think that was the biggest problem with divisional play is it really got stale, especially after Missouri and Texas A&M joined the league. And there was the one fixed divisional opponent and then the one rotating spot. and it just felt like that you never got to the certain point in the rotation. As Chris Lowe pointed out, Georgia has never played a game at Kyle Field.

And Georgia and Texas A&M have been in the same conference now for 13 years. Yeah, that's insane. Yeah. So we're going to see that. We're going to see, you know, Texas A&M and Texas comes to Georgia this year, but Oklahoma is going to go to Georgia. You know, Florida is going to go to Norman. Auburn, we just saw in Norman. And now we've got, you know, we'll get Auburn.

Texas and those are going to be so much fun yeah yeah so it feels i think i feel pretty good about it and i don't i don't see anything that you know fans are going to be upset no matter what but i think in terms of threaded the needle on yeah on parity and all it took was how many years of big 10 winding to get them good or nine they got it now now you got it and uh and we'll see what these look like but i look forward to doing this video again four years from now when we're arguing about the uh the next set of them if they don't change anything we can just uh you know rerun it. I don't know. It was great. I'm happy to be that you're in this room right now. Andy popped down to Dallas from Oklahoma this weekend. And certainly, Andy,

thank you to Chris Lowe for joining us. Hell yeah. Coming off the golf course. How much ass do you kick if you scoop the whole world while you're on the golf course? Yeah, it's an electric atmosphere. And I'm so happy that he's at On Three. And thank you guys for being here. We have a show today too. That's right. It's coming out. 3 p.m. Eastern time on Monday on the On Three Sports YouTube channel. So so be ready for that. The games this week are amazing. They're going to be so hard to pick it. You're going to see Ari and I really, really struggle as we try to pick these games. So 3 p.m. Eastern time on the On3 Sports YouTube channel. So subscribe now and never miss an

episode. And we'll talk to you again very soon.