Texas fans will have to wait one more year for marquee SEC road trips to rarely-visited locations
On Wednesday, the Southeastern Conference announced the 2025 league schedule for its 16 teams will feature the same opponents the 2024 slate features, just with the locations flipped. For Texas, that means the Longhorns will host Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt during conference play and travel to Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Florida during their second season in the SEC. The Red River Shootout will remain in its traditional home of the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
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The Longhorns are traveling to Fayetteville, Ark. and College Station this season, two locations they know well. The only new-ish location Texas and its faithful will be able to check out during the first SEC season is Nashville for a faceoff with the Commodores.
While there is business for the program to attend to in Nashville as Texas is 0-4 at Vandy, losing games in 1899, 1905, 1906, and 1925 by a combined score of 98-6, UT won’t be able to add updated stamps from classic southeastern university towns like Lexington, Ky., Athens, Ga., Gainesville, Fla., or Starkville, Miss. to their college football passports until 2025. And it won’t be able to see rarely visited towns like Auburn, Ala., Knoxville, Tenn., Columbia, S.C., or Baton Rouge, La. until 2026 at the earliest.
The SEC announced the decision and as a result kicked the eight-game or nine-game conference schedule question down the road one more season. The addition of Texas and Oklahoma created the question, one the league plans to address for the 2026 season after Wednesday’s announcement.
Texas has never trekked to Athens to play between the hedges in Sanford Stadium. The Longhorns played the Bulldogs in Atlanta once during the 1957 season, and hosted Georgia the next year in Austin. Texas won both games. All other contests have been neutral site contests like the 1949 Orange Bowl, the 1984 Cotton Bowl, and the 2019 Sugar Bowl.
Texas has never been to the Bluegrass State to face the Wildcats, either. The two schools have played each other just once, with Texas defeating UK and Bear Bryant 7-6 in Austin in 1951.
UT and UF have played three times in their history, with Texas leading the series 2-0-1. UT traveled to Gainesville in 1940 for the last meeting between the Gators and the Longhorns. Texas shut out Florida, 26-0.
The Horns have made one appearance in Starkville, losing to the Bulldogs 13-6 at the beginning of the 1991 season.
Traveling Longhorns will have to look forward to 2026 to see their shade of burnt orange go to locations like South Carolina and Tennessee, two schools Texas has not faced in a road game. Similar applies to opportunities to head to somewhat familiar places like LSU’s Tiger Stadium, Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium, or Missouri’s Faurot Field.
But those same traveling fans can look ahead to 2025 and start getting their itineraries together for trips to Starkville, Athens, Gainesville, and Lexington, with 2026 being the year they can truly explore rarely-visited locations in the Southeastern Conference.
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2025 Texas SEC opponents
Home: Arkansas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
Away: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State
Neutral: Oklahoma (Dallas, Texas)
Non-conference: at Ohio State (8/30), San Jose State (9/6), UTEP (9/13), Sam Houston State (9/27)
