Why games like Georgia-Alabama won’t be once-in-a-decade events in new SEC

The last time Alabama came to Athens, Smart was still on the opposing sideline, working as Alabama’s defensive coordinator.

Alabama won 38-10 that day, as the Crimson Tide defense smothered Georgia’s offense. Derrick Henry and Calvin Ridley both scored touchdowns on a day that is best remembered for how rainy it was.

The long gap between trips to Athens was in large part because of the old SEC scheduling model. Under the eight-game model, schools would play six divisional foes. For Georgia, that was Florida, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee.

The Bulldogs would have one annual game against an SEC West opponent in Auburn as a protected rivalry. Alabama’s came against Tennessee.

That would put Georgia on a rotation with the other six SEC West foes, flipping through one a season. Add in home and road trips and schools would need 12 seasons to cycle through every team.

Starting in 2026, the number of years it will take to see every team at home and on the road cuts down to four.

The SEC has said that the three annual opponents can be revisited in four years in order to maintain competitive fairness. The foes were chosen based on factors of history, competitive fairness and geography.

As for the rest of the schedule, schools will have a rotation of the other 12 schools. Playing six each year allows teams to play each conference member home and away over a four-year span.

Consider that Georgia last hosted LSU in 2013. Or that the Bulldogs haven’t been to Texas A&M since the Aggies joined the conference in 2012.

Now, a Georgia 2026 signee who stays for four seasons will play every conference member twice.

“You can guarantee that we’re going to play every SEC opponent at least once every two years,” Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks said. “You’re going to get them at home and on the road once every four years. I think that’s good. When you talk to fans and the desire for higher-quality opponents and then knowing the rotation and being able to plan the next four years, you’ll be able to come out and plan your next four years and say, ‘I’m going to go to this trip in this year.’ I think that’s good for fans.”

In its scheduling outline, the SEC made it clear it wants competitively balanced schedules, which will be determined using the entire schedule and not just the annual opponents. Tennessee reportedly will face Alabama, Vanderbilt and Kentucky in each of the next four years. The latter two are not exactly football powerhouses.

According to the SEC, the highest opponent average winning percentage for any school in the 2026-29 schedules is 55.67% while the lowest is 46.65%, a difference of only 9.02%. From 2020 through 2023 — when the league still used the divisional format — the highest winning percentage was 61.32% and the lowest was 39.76%.

In addition to nine conference games, the SEC stipulates that schools face one Power Four in its nonconference scheduling. Georgia’s game against Georgia Tech satisfies that requirement. Georgia has future nonconference games against Louisville, Florida State, Clemson and Ohio State on its schedule for the time being.

Schools like Florida and Alabama have dropped some future nonconference games against Power Four programs in the wake of the SEC’s decision to go to nine conference games. It remains to be seen if Georgia will end up doing the same.

Those nonconference games come at the cost of seeing more of the SEC. Instead of potentially going to Columbus, Ohio, to face Ohio State a home game against Alabama becomes a more routine matchup, as opposed to a once-in-a-generation event.