With the announcement of a nine-game SEC football schedule beginning in 2026 coming down late last week, speculation has been rampant on how the league will align the scheduling puzzle moving forward for its members.
The big question that remains for every SEC fan base: Who will be the three permanent rivals for my favorite team?
The SEC’s task is to determine these round robins with respect to historical rivalries and equity of schedule in mind—it wouldn’t necessarily be fair for one team to have its permanent rivalry teams loaded with blue bloods, while another program enjoys a weaker collection of opponents annually.
At the same time, rivalry matchups for those blue bloods are often some of the most compelling games in any given season of the sport. So, paying respect to maintaining cherished rivalry games is important, too.
It’s a delicate balance for the SEC to strike, and it could be particularly compelling to see where Missouri fits into it all.
Obviously, Mizzou isn’t overflowing with historical SEC rivals after only joining the conference 13 years ago. But there are at least a couple of obvious fits that we expect the SEC to lock into for the Tigers’ permanent rivals.
The first permanent rival that I expect to land on Mizzou’s list when the SEC figures all of this out, for better or worse: the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The Battle Line rivalry was foisted upon both programs when Mizzou joined the league in 2012 by virtue of the neighbors sharing a border—and not really having any better options for an annual rival at the time. Mizzou had little history with its newfound SEC brethren, and nobody in the league really cared about playing Arkansas, either.
Though former Big XII league-mate Texas A&M joined the SEC at the same time as Missouri, that one didn’t really feel like a rivalry even in the former conference, so it was honestly a relief that the SEC didn’t force those two programs together back in 2012—that would have made the inane commentary from other SEC fans about Mizzou’s status in the conference even more obnoxious.
And, there’s a case to be made that pairing up the Tigers with my second predicted permanent rival will lend more ammunition to the ‘Missouri Isn’t Real SEC’ jokers. But I’m not really too concerned about those people. They’ve got to deal with Missouri in this league, and that fact will grow more uncomfortable for them with each passing year (ask a Tennessee fan and you’ll see what I mean).
So, no, the SEC shouldn’t avoid pairing Missouri with another former Big XII foe when it comes to the reignited matchup with the Oklahoma Sooners to account for Mizzou’s second permanent rivalry.
Sooner fans don’t consider this one a “real rivalry” (and in their shoes, I’d probably try to make a similar claim after taking that L in Columbia last November), but sometimes, that type of angst between fan bases can serve as evidence for exactly why the game should be played every year.
There is history between Mizzou and OU, and outside of the obvious Red River Rivalry accounting for one of Oklahoma’s three permanent rivals in the SEC, the Sooners aren’t necessarily teeming with obvious pairings, either.
Of the former Big XII rivals that the SEC could pair together involving Missouri, this feels like the one that makes the most sense—though, if we’re strictly talking travel arrangements, I would personally prefer a trip to Austin every other year instead of Norman, so I wouldn’t shy away from an annual Texas matchup if the league decided to go that direction for Missouri.
Still, Texas feels pretty locked into OU and A&M as two of its three rivals, so the Longhorns should probably get at least one permanent rival who didn’t used to be in the Big XII.
That’s why I like the South Carolina Gamecocks as Missouri’s third permanent rival under the new SEC scheduling format.
While you can make a case that Missouri has also had some extremely compelling games against Kentucky over the last dozen years, I’m not sure there has been a rivalry of more natural origins for the Tigers than what has developed against the Gamecocks during its stint in the SEC to date.
Andrew Baggett off the upright in CoMo in 2023 after Connor freakin’ Shaw saved South Carolina’s bacon—the loss fueled Mizzou not to lose another game until they got to Atlanta. Mizzou got its revenge the next year with two late fourth-quarter touchdowns on the road to emerge with a thrilling 21-20 win.
2024 was a wild finish in the other Columbia. Tigers fans who were ready to memorialize what could have gone down as the most significant touchdown connection between Brady Cook and Luther Burden if not for the heroics of LaNorris Sellers moments later.
These games always seem to carry the potential for some dramatic moments, and in terms of its legitimacy as a rivalry, there’s already a trophy on the line when this game is played: The Mayor’s Cup.
Mizzou landing South Carolina as its third permanent rivalry would be preferred to the league sticking the Tigers with Vanderbilt—not for competitive reasons, as Vandy is generally a lesser program than SCAR.
But for the value of Missouri getting a little more entrenched into SEC traditions that feel genuine, I would love to see the Gamecocks on the schedule every single year moving into this new era of SEC scheduling.