Joe Castiglione shares the SEC will announce each team's three permanent opponents this Tuesday

The SEC is set to move to nine conference games next season with three permanent rivals. Now, Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione told ESPN that the SEC is set to announce the permanent opponents next Tuesday.

Those permanent opponents will be revealed on the SEC Network. That will allow the network to showcase the new scheduling format and give some explanation for what is going into the matchups moving forward.

Scheduling has been a major point of conversation within the SEC in recent seasons. As the conference has expanded, it’s become harder to have eight conference games and maintain those traditional rivals while also playing all SEC schools at one point or another. Now, the move to nine games should allow every team to have at least one road trip to every SEC school within a four-year span. At the same time, the permanent rivalries should protect the most important annual games from being lost.

This is an idea that has been thrown out in the past for the SEC. However, there have been some issues finding a balance between maintaining relatively equal strengths of schedule within the conference and making sure everyone played the games important to them.

Over the summer, the SEC announced its move from eight conference games to nine conference games, starting in 2026. Teams are also going to need to schedule at least one Power Four non-conference opponent. At the time, Commissioner Greg Sankey explained that decision.

“It took a while. A lot of factors involved – you and I have talked about bowl eligibility, the CFP. Some of the work by the CFP so far this year is progress. It’s not a destination, but the honoring of schedule strength that’s been communicated is really important for the Southeastern Conference. Being leaders in college football, continuing to play games against non-conference opponents at a high level in addition to the nine games. I think that’s a representation of fulfilling that leadership responsibility. That’s not something that’s done every place. Not everyone agrees. I’m certain that our coaches are concerned about the competitive aspect. We’ve got to continue to improve the selection process for the postseason,” Sankey said.

“Yet, when you factor that in along with our media relationship with ESPN. What we experienced from viewership last year, when you go back to the COVID year where we played conference-only games and had the highest viewership consumption on the SEC Network because every one of those games were great games, a lot of lessons that also set us up for future decision-making and future opportunities. Those are but some of the factors that brought us to this conclusion.”

The ACC will be the only Power Four conference to play eight games next season. All the others will have a nine-game schedule. How that affects strength of schedule and how they’re perceived by the College Football Playoff selection committee remains to be seen.