With conference play in the 2025 season now officially wrapped up, the SEC has released its football schedules for the 2026 season as fans can now start marking their calendars, booking hotels and planning their road game trips.
Though the list of opponents were already known, fans now have dates to go off when it comes to planning how every Saturday next fall is going to look. With the conference moving from an eight-game schedule to a nine-game schedule, it was never going to be an easy road.
For Alabama and Auburn though, it’s a particular gauntlet during stretches of the season for each of them.
The Crimson Tide starts off relatively light with five games against East Carolina (home), Kentucky (away), Florida State (home), South Carolina (home) and Mississippi State (away), but after that it gets laughably difficult.
Starting on October 10, Alabama starts a five game gauntlet which contains Georgia, a road trip to Knoxville, a return home to face Texas A&M before a bye week, then after the bye will have to travel both to LSU and to Vanderbilt before cupcake week against Chattanooga ahead of the Iron Bowl.
As for the Tigers, they will start the season with two home games against Southern Miss and Florida before a five-game onslaught of their own begins. First up will be Vanderbilt at home coming off an equally difficult game against the Gators, then a trip to Knoxville to face Tennessee. From there, Auburn will have a bye week before hitting the road again to face Georgia, returning home for LSU, and traveling to Ole Miss before things lighten up down the stretch.
A nine game conference schedule in the best league in college football was always going to be extremely difficult, but Alabama and Auburn are facing the kind of run perhaps they have never seen before. Time will tell how they handle it.
