Must-watch games on 2024 SEC football schedule when Texas, Oklahoma join
We have our first glimpse of the future after the SEC announced the home and away opponents for each team in the 2024 college football season, when newcomers Texas and Oklahoma will play their first matchups as members of the conference, and as the SEC plays its first season with 16 members and without East or West divisions.
While we know next season will still feature eight conference games, that remains up in the air for 2025 and beyond, and the SEC is whetting our appetites with a sneak preview of who each team will play and where in a year's time.
Actual dates and times are still a long way off, but there are already plenty of intriguing games fans should be excited to watch next fall.
Texas vs. Texas A&M
We haven't seen this historic rivalry for more than a decade, not since 2011 when the Longhorns and Aggies last met on Thanksgiving night, a Texas win that came right before A&M departed for the SEC the season after. Traditionally one of the fiercest and most hotly contested rivalries in college football history, this one is finally back on the schedule when the SEC kicks off in 2024.
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Oklahoma at LSU
These two last met during LSU's undefeated run up to the national championship, a dominant 63-28 victory in the College Football Playoff but have split the two other meetings giving LSU a 2-1 edge in the series. Watching these two prestige names on the same field in Death Valley, arguably college football's most intense home field advantage, will be must-see TV.
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Alabama at Oklahoma
Oklahoma has a 3-2-1 record against Alabama all-time dating back to 1963, a 17-0 victory for the Crimson Tide in the Orange Bowl, with Joe Namath under center for the Tide and President John F. Kennedy in attendance.
Alabama also won the most recent matchup, a dramatic 45-34 shootout over the Sooners in the 2018 College Football Playoff Orange Bowl semifinal. OU won three straight over Bama, in 2002 and 2003 during the regular season, and following the 2013 season in the Sugar Bowl.
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Georgia at Texas
An absolutely gigantic home game for the Longhorns as they embark on life in the SEC, against college football's back-to-back national champions and what should be once again one of the nation's premier defensive units. All eyes will be on Texas in this crucial early matchup as a first impression to see how it fits into the conference.
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Georgia at Alabama
For just the fifth time in the last 20 years, we finally get to see the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs go at it in a head-to-head clash of titans.
Alabama has been the king of the SEC and of college football for much of this century under Nick Saban, while Georgia looks well on its way to replacing it in that capacity, if it hasn't already, winning two straight national championships.
These two have combined to win five of the last eight national championships, and while they haven't played each other that often, five of them have come in the last six years, with four of those coming in the SEC Championship Game or national title.
Alabama has won seven of the last eight overall and owns a 42-26-4 advantage over the Bulldogs all-time.
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Texas at Arkansas
Another great rivalry that we should see on a regular basis now that these two schools are back in the same conference. We got a sneak preview of a series that dates back to 1894 when the Longhorns went into Fayetteville, a statement win for Arkansas, which has taken two straight against Texas.
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