Rivalry weekend isn’t anytime soon, but talking season is currently in full swing. That being said, let’s look at the biggest rivalries around the league this year. Here are the ten best rivalries that will shape the season in the SEC.
Honorable mention: Shane Beamer vs the hot seat.
Don’t be surprised if South Carolina turns out to be much better than many expect. The offseason chatter about Shane Beamer’s job security could quickly give way to conversations about the Gamecocks crashing the College Football Playoff race and becoming one of the SEC’s biggest surprises.
10. LSU vs Ole Miss
This is the most anticipated game this year, and after the offseason shenanigans that have taken place, with good reason. Still, this game is played in week three of the season. It’s not going to ruin either team’s playoff chances.
The bigger concern for both teams is how either bounces back the following week, win or lose. The mental and emotional exhaustion will far outweigh the physical exhaustion in this one.
The following week features a trip to the Swamp for Ole Miss and a home game against Texas A&M for LSU. Those games will tell a lot more about how each season will turn out.
9. Pete Golding vs first year coaching pitfalls
It’s hard to imagine a better start than the one Pete Golding has gotten off to in Oxford. Two playoff wins, an excellent portal and recruiting class and retaining the best quarterback in the SEC.
The long-term outlook for Ole Miss is trending in the right direction. The concern is year one. It seems like every SEC coach has their own issues in year one as a head coach.
Nick Saban lost to UL-Monroe, and four straight games, to close out his first year at Alabama with a 7-6 record. Kirby Smart lost to Ole Miss, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt in his first season that finished at 8-5 for Georgia.
Golding can be great, but can he avoid those same pitfalls that others couldn’t?
8. UGA vs Alabama
Death, taxes and this year being the year that Georgia finally gets the Alabama monkey off their back.
Even with Nick Saban gone, Kirby Smart is still 1-2 against Alabama. This year the Dawgs travel back to Tuscaloosa to, once again, play against their biggest nemesis over the last decade plus in this league.
Will it look like the lopsided victory in Atlanta a season ago or like the two losses prior to that?
7. Kalen DeBoer vs teams he should beat
Kalen DeBoer continues to be one of the best coaches in America against ranked opponents. He’s 20-5 as a head coach against top 25 teams. That’s the best of any coach in America.
The problem is maintaining focus in the games that he’s supposed to win. We saw it last year against Florida State and the prior year against Oklahoma and Vanderbilt. Alabama is expected to take a step back this year. The size of that step will be decided by how well the Tide is prepared and can play against the teams they should beat.
6. Tennessee vs Alabama
The third Saturday in October always has a lot riding on it. This year will be no different. The biggest difference this year, however, is that this game may all but knock out the loser from playoff contention.
Alabama and Tennessee both host games early in the season where they will be big underdogs as they break in first year quarterbacks. If Bama loses to Georgia, and Tennessee loses to Texas as expected, then that means the loser of this game will enter the final month of the season with two losses and little room for error.
5. Texas A&M vs Texas
The annual post-Thanksgiving rock fight between two siblings that make Cain and Abel look like best friends. Everyone gather in the front yard, or your TVs, and watch big brother and little brother bloody each other while we digest turkey and pecan pie leftovers.
This year’s game returns to Austin, and should have a massive impact on the SEC championship outlook and CFP picture.
4. Alabama vs Auburn
This rivalry has been one sided for the last several years. Alabama has won six straight, the longest streak for them in the series since Bear Bryant won nine straight. There have been some absolute classics in three of those six years.
The world has waited for Alabama to truly fall off the side of a cliff post-Nick Saban era. It hasn’t happened yet, but can you imagine a world where Alabama loses to Auburn at home under a first year head coach? Yikes.
3. Lane Kiffin vs himself
Lane Kiffin is one of the best coaches in all of college football. He will oversee one of the best rosters in all of college football. All the pieces are in place for LSU to make a run to a title. Can Kiffin keep focus for a full 12 game regular season and whatever happens in the postseason?
LSU should win under Kiffin, and not winning a national title in year one is understandable and not a failure. What would qualify as a failure is missing the College Football Playoff altogether because of the same kind of avoidable losses that plagued Ole Miss in 2024, when the Rebels were upset by Kentucky and Florida.
It seems like Kiffin has learned from those mistakes, now he just has to prove it in a new location.
2. Texas vs Oklahoma
The winner of this game goes directly into the driver’s seat for the SEC Championship and spot in the College Football Playoff. There is not a single game that has more riding on it this season, especially considering where it’s placed on each team’s schedule.
1. The SEC vs Everybody
Hearing from Ohio State and Michigan fans is normal this time of year. But having to listen to Danny Kanell take a victory lap for Indiana, and use another season without an SEC team in the national championship game as ammunition, is a level of misery that few SEC fans, or Greg Sankey, are eager to endure for another year.
