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Sports Seriously, USA TODAY
The Southeastern Conference has released the schedule for the 2024 football season … mostly. Specific dates and times have yet to be nailed down, but we have the most important thing: The matchups and the locations.
And there’s a lot to take in on that front considering the SEC is gaining two new members in 2024 in Oklahoma and Texas, two true college football blue bloods. Their maiden voyage in an SEC that is also doing away with divisions creates a number of interesting games between powers that just haven’t clashed all that much, or at least not recently. But there’s plenty of other great matchups on the schedule between traditional SEC powers, too.
Here are the 10 best SEC football games on the 2024 schedule:
10. Auburn at Alabama
The Iron Bowl is consistently one of the more interesting rivalry matchups in the SEC, even if it’s historically fairly one-sided. It’s nice it’s not going away, though, and it will be interesting to see how Auburn fares vs. Alabama in what should be their second season under coach Hugh Freeze.
9. Tennessee at Oklahoma
These teams actually played a home-and-home series in 2014 and 2015, the latter matchup seeing Oklahoma — led by Baker Mayfield — stage a rally from 17-0 down to win in Knoxville. This Tennessee squad under Josh Heupel appears ascendant and should the Vols remain in the upper echelon of the SEC this could be a great challenge for Oklahoma.
8. Texas at Arkansas
These longtime Southwest Conference rivals who once clashed in one of the many “Games of the Century” haven’t played much in the last 30 years, though they did recently link up for a 2021 game that saw Arkansas win in dominant fashion. Seeing this game on a more regular basis would be great for a sport losing so many rivalries elsewhere.
7. Oklahoma at Ole Miss
What will Oklahoma be in 2024? The Sooners’ first season under Brent Venables was also their first losing season since 1998. They’ll likely turn it around in 2023 before hitting the SEC … but what if they don’t? Will Venables still be the guy in charge? The Sooners are seemingly at a crossroads and there’s pressure on the longtime kings of the Big 12 to raise their game before joining the 16-team SEC. A matchup like this, vs. Lane Kiffin’s crew in Mississippi, is a reminder that there are few “gimmie” games in their new league.
6. Oklahoma at LSU
Tiger Stadium is one of the hardest places to play in college football and LSU appears ahead of schedule under coach Brian Kelly after winning the SEC West in his first season. Given his history, by Kelly’s third season the Tigers could be one of the better teams in the entire sport. It’s a huge challenge for Oklahoma. An added bonus: This will be only the fourth game these teams have ever played; the first two came in the Sugar Bowl (1950, 2004) and the most recent meeting was in the Peach Bowl. LSU won that 2019 game 63-28 on the way to its most recent national championship.
5. Oklahoma vs. Texas
The Red River Rivalry but now it Just Means More. The 2022 game at the Cotton Bowl saw Texas drop the hammer for its biggest win in the series ever, 49-0, but prior to that eight of the last nine games were within one score — and the scores have generally been pretty high.
4. Alabama at Oklahoma
Two of the true titans of college football, the Crimson Tide and Sooners have met way less than you think for teams that are perennially in the national title discussion. Their 2024 matchup will be only their seventh meeting of all-time (Oklahoma leads the series 3-2-1) and first since the Orange Bowl in December 2018. A home-and-home in 2002-2003 is the only time they’ve played on each other’s campuses. It’s going to be a cool thing to see.
3. Georgia at Texas
Georgia is currently on top of the college football world and Texas is constantly doing whatever it can to get back there. Though it’s been basically 15 years since Texas was truly a part of the national title picture, the Longhorns remain one of the biggest brands in the sport and a visit from a team like Georgia to the 100,000-seat Texas Memorial Stadium is must-see TV. (These teams have only met five times, once in the 21st century and only one home-and-home in 1957-1958.) There’s also the Arch Manning factor: The No. 1 recruit and nephew to Peyton and Eli could be (should be?) the Longhorns’ starting QB in 2024; he was also recruited by Georgia.
2. Texas at Texas A&M
Expansion renews one of college football’s great rivalries, which has been dormant since Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012. Conference realignment has blown apart plenty of great rivalries, but reuniting this one is a true win for fans who like to watch two teams and fan bases that legitimately don’t like each other go head-to-head. The message boards should be legendary.
1. Georgia at Alabama
Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC is exciting, but that doesn’t mean the league’s balance of power is going to be changing anytime soon. Georgia could very well be the three-time defending national champions when this game kicks off. Alabama is Alabama. Though they’ve had major matchups in Atlanta at the SEC championship game and have split a pair of national title game showdowns, this battle of two of the sport’s best programs will mark just the third time in 18 seasons that Georgia will travel to Tuscaloosa. It might be the game of the year across all of college football.
