What to know about the SEC's schedule release on Tuesday night

Tennessee Football will learn its Southeastern Conference opponents for the 2026 seasons when the league releases its new-look nine-game schedule Tuesday night. The new schedules will be released at 7 p.m. Eastern Time on SEC Network and ESPN2.

The nine-game schedules will feature three annual rivalry games to go with a six-game rotation, assuring that all SEC teams will play each other every two years and play each team home and away every four seasons. 

On3’s Chris Low on Monday reported the three rivalry games across the league, with Tennessee getting Alabama, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. 

The SEC’s three annual opponents, per Chris Low

The SEC will continue to use a single-standings, non-divisional structure for the league and will also require teams to schedule one quality non-conference game against teams from the ACC, Big Ten or Big 12, or against Notre Dame. 

The priorities the SEC used to build the new schedule model included traditional rivalries, rotational frequency, competitive fairness and College Football Playoff participation. 

Annual opponents were based on final-week matchups (Tennessee-Vanderbilt), neutral-site games (Oklahoma-Texas, Florida-Georgia) and historical longtime series (Tennessee-Kentucky, Tennessee-Alabama). 

Competitive fairness and geography were also an emphasis. The annual rivalry games will be reevaluated every four years.

With nine-game schedules, eight schools will play five home games while the other five have four home games. Teams with five home conference games in 2026 will play four home conference games in 2027, with the schedules continuing to alternate accordingly.  

A closer look at Tennessee’s annual rivalry games

The Kentucky series is Tennessee’s most played, with 120 games dating back to 1893, and the Vanderbilt series is the oldest, with its 119 games dating back to 1892. 

Tennessee-Alabama is the most notable rivalry for the Vols, though, with the “Third Saturday in October” having been played 107 times since 1901. Tennessee has played Georgia 55 times and Florida and Auburn 54 times each. 

“I do think rivalries matter,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said on Monday. “It’s part of the tradition of this game, fan bases pointing to those football games. I haven’t heard about that report. I know that the league, that’s something that’s been important to them to try to protect some of those special games for universities and their fan bases.”