SEC announces return of historic home-and-home basketball rivalries

SEC expansion meant there was some figuring out to do with scheduling on the men’s basketball side. The 2023-2024 season saw some classic matchups not get played twice in one season. Now, the league is getting two of its best rivalries back.

First up in the SEC’s most iconic program against the current reigning national champions. Florida and Kentucky met just once last season, a game that resulted a massive win for Mark Pope to kick off the conference schedule at Rupp Arena. Now, the two will meet in both Gainesville and Lexington this upcoming year.

“We heard loud and clear from SEC fans about the importance of the Florida-Kentucky rivalry in men’s basketball when these two teams only played once last year (as the SEC expanded to 16 teams),” SEC Associate Commissioner Garth Glissman said via X. “And we’re pumped to make this historic rivalry a home-and-home matchup next season!”

The Florida-Kentucky rivalry is nearly 100 years old and 152 total games have been played between them. Kentucky has found the most success, winning 110 of the matchups. Recent seasons have proven to be successful for the Wildcats as well, currently on a run of 11 wins in the last 13 since Florida swept the 2012-2013 season.

We will get two more once SEC play begins in January. The same can be said about Alabama–Tennessee. Known as the Third Saturday in October on the football field, the basketball rivalry has gone up a notch or two in recent years.

However, recent years have seen just one matchup between the two. We saw home-and-home during the 2022-2023 season but before then, you have to go all the way back to 2012-2013 to find the last time that occurred. Fans of the Crimson Tide and Vols will be happy to see each other the schedule twice now.

“The Alabama-Tennessee rivalry is so iconic that (Morgan Wallen) has a song about it,” Glissman said via X. “After a one-year break (due to a change in the schedule format when the SEC expanded to 16 teams), we felt compelled to make this a home-and-home matchup again next men’s basketball season.”

For now, SEC teams only know who their opponents are. Dates for the matchups have not yet been released and will be announced at a later time. But the league felt the need to bring a couple of rivalries back to center stage.