BATON ROUGE -- Starting next season, LSU football will play nine conference games.
The Southeastern Conference officially announced Thursday that it will implement a nine-game league schedule starting in 2026, the first time it's had a conference slate of more than eight games. Two other parts of the conference's announcement stated that teams would be mandated to schedule at least one nonconference game against a Power Four team or Notre Dame and that each SEC team will have three permanent opponents while the rest of the teams will rotate in and out.
When the conference did away with divisions before last season when Texas and Oklahoma officially joined the league, it gave consideration to teams' traditional rivalries.
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Historically, LSU has had a few rivals along the way from OIe Miss back in the 50s, 60s and 70s, Auburn in the late 80s and 90s, and most recently with squads like Alabama, Florida and Texas A&M.
Under the new SEC scheduling format, which teams could end up being the Tigers' permanent opponents? Let's look at the five possible candidates and give our prediction.
Once Nick Saban took the Alabama job back in 2007, the vitriol between LSU, which Saban coached to a national championship, and the Tide reached new heights. The matchups between the two teams were games that featured some of the biggest collection of future NFL talent. Not only that but for what seemed like the better part of two decades, the winner of the game would go on and play for the SEC Championship. There's a been a "Game of the Century" and a NCAA title game showdown in New Orleans and Ed Orgeron's viral locker room speech.
The team two teams play for the Golden Boot, a trophy that's the shape of the states of Arkansas and Louisiana together. This has been one of those games on LSU's schedule every year, where it doesn't matter what the teams' records are, it's always a tight contest. There's rarely been much at stake in this game outside of the trophy. LSU and Arkansas have played 70 times and LSU holds a 43-23-2 series lead.
Arguably, this has been the most fun rivalry game on LSU's schedule over the years. There's the infamous "Shoe Game," which included the Les Miles' fake field goal that led to an LSU win in the waning seconds in 2010. For a while, when LSU and Florida met, it's been a showdown of ranked teams. The two fanbases have grown to not like each other much. In terms of overall series history, LSU doesn't have a more competitive rivalry with Florida holding a 34-31-3 edge.
If you ask the older LSU Tigers fans, the team's most bitter rival is Ole Miss. Coined the Magnolia Bowl, the Tigers and Rebels have squared off 113 times dating back to 1894. The LSU-Ole Miss series also has all-time moments as well from Billy Cannon's Halloween run, the "Night the Clock Stopped" game. Last season's meeting at Tiger Stadium, LSU won in overtime and it didn't lead a single second of the game.
Geographically speaking, Texas A&M is the closet school to LSU. And that's an added bonus to how entertaining the matchups between the Tigers and Aggies have been since A&M joined the SEC back in 2012. The seven-overtime game a few years back is one of the most memorable games in all of college football. LSU and Texas A&M have traded wins in the six meetings. Younger LSU fans say that A&M is the team they hate the most.
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at [email protected].