LEXINGTON, Ky. – With the addition of Oklahoma and Texas to the Southeastern Conference in 2024, the league announced its football teams will play an eight-game conference schedule in the first year of the expanded footprint.
Kentucky will face Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina and Vanderbilt at Kroger Field and meet Florida, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas on the road in 2024. Dates and times will be announced at a later date.
Kentucky’s matchup with Texas will mark the teams’ first meeting since 1951 in Austin, Texas.
Among the features of the matchups announced Wednesday is that each of the 14 existing Conference members will play either Oklahoma or Texas – home or away – during the 2024 season.
As previously announced, SEC teams in 2024 will play eight conference games plus one required opponent from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 or major independent during the 2024 season when the SEC becomes a 16-team conference.
The slate of home and away designations in 2024 was built with the provision that no school will travel to the same location to which it traveled in 2023.
The 2024 SEC opponents were determined based on two primary factors: traditional opponents and balance of schedule strength.
Balance of schedule strength was based on each school’s conference winning percentage since the last expansion of the SEC in 2012. The winning percentages for the performance of Oklahoma and Texas in the Big 12 since 2012 were included in determining 16 positions ranked by winning percentage.
Each school’s schedule in 2024 will include four opponents – two home and two away -- whose winning percentage ranked among the top eight conference winning percentages since 2012. Also, each school’s 2024 schedule will include four opponents – two home and two away -- whose winning percentages ranked among the second eight conference winning percentages since 2012.
While no school will travel to the same location to which it traveled in 2023, it should be noted that when a long-term schedule format is determined, it may not be possible to structure a schedule that does not include some schools playing at the same location in back-to-back years in the first year of a new format.
It was also previously announced the SEC will eliminate divisional standings beginning in 2024. The SEC Championship Game will feature the two top teams in the Conference standings at the end of the regular season.
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