LEXINGTON, Ky. — The matchups for the first SEC football season with Texas and Oklahoma as league members are set.
The league unveiled each team’s eight conference opponents for the 2024 season Wednesday on the SEC Network. Dates for the game have not been announced, but after months of speculation about what the schedule will look like once the SEC expands to 16 teams we now know the format for at least one year.
Kentucky will travel to Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Ole Miss. The Wildcats will host Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. UK’s non-conference schedule in 2024 includes home games against Louisville, Ohio and Murray State with and a road game at Akron.
The SEC recently announced it would stay at eight conference games for the 2024 season but left the door open to an expansion to nine games later.
To set the 2024 opponents, following the dissolution of the two-division format, the league outlined several guidelines.
Each current member of the SEC will play either Texas or Oklahoma, and no team will travel to the same location it will play at in 2023. The schedule was then filled out with an effort to maintain traditional rivalries while balancing overall schedule strength.
Here are three takeaways from Kentucky’s 2024 opponents reveal:
— Return to Texas: While UK will play the Longhorns for the first time as conference opponents in 2024, the Wildcats have actually played in Austin once already. Kentucky lost to Texas, 7-6, there in 1951. The day featured a strong performance from quarterback Babe Parilli, but Kentucky was undone by six turnovers. With the victory, Texas extended its home winning streak to 50 games. Despite the loss, Kentucky went on to an 8-4 season and Cotton Bowl berth. Playing in Texas for the second time that season, UK beat TCU 20-7 in the Cotton Bowl.
— Still an “East” heavy schedule: Yes, the SEC is dropping divisions in 2024, but Kentucky will still play six of seven teams currently in its division. The lone current East team not on the schedule is Missouri, the most recent East team to join the SEC. The bigger change to Kentucky’s schedule is dropping Mississippi State, its current fixed opponent from the West Division, for the first time since 1989.
— The wait for Texas A&M goes on: The timing of league expansion means Kentucky fans waiting to watch one of the teams that joined the SEC in the last round of expansion play in Lexington will have to wait at least another year. Texas A&M, which joined the SEC in 2012, has yet to play at Kroger Field. The Aggies were scheduled to travel to Lexington in 2024 under the prior schedule format before Texas and Oklahoma joined the league. UK’s lone game against Texas A&M as conference opponents came in College Station in 2018.
2024 Kentucky opponents
— Home games: Auburn, Georgia, Louisville, Ohio, Murray State, South Carolina, Vanderbilt.
— Road games:Akron, Florida, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas.
