The Southeastern Conference continues to have an eight-game conference schedule, meaning four non-conference regular season games each year. One of those four must be against a Power Five opponent (a team from one of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, or Pac-12 or independent Notre Dame).

The eight conference games played by each team include the other six teams in the same division plus one game every year against a designated opponent from the other division (in Alabama’s case that is Tennessee). The eighth game is played against another team from the other division on a rotating basis (this year for Bama it is Missouri).

Among other things, it means that the players on a team will not play against every other team that is part of the rotation schedule in a four- or five-year period with the possible exception of meeting in the SEC Championship Game. For instance, Alabama played Florida in 2014, but will not play against the Gators in regular season play again until 2021, though Bama did play against Florida in two SEC Championship Games (2015 and 2016).

Nick Saban is undefeated in games against teams coached by former assistants

That is one reason Alabama Coach Nick Saban proposed the SEC moving to a nine-game conference schedule. When that proposal was raised in the SEC Spring Meeting a few years ago, the vote of SEC coaches was Saban for, the other 13 against.

(The coaches don’t make the decisions on SEC policy, but that vote was probably close to how the presidents of SEC schools would consider the proposal.)

The SEC schedule of the rotating teams has been established through the 2025 season.

Following the Missouri game in Tuscaloosa this year, the remaining rotating opponents for Bama are:

At South Carolina in 2019, Georgia in 2020, at Florida in 2021, Vanderbilt in 2022, at Kentucky in 2023, South Carolina in 2024, and at Missouri in 2025.

It’s a safe bet that the freshmen on this year’s Alabama team will never play games against Vanderbilt and Kentucky, charter members of the SEC.

A sidelight of the SEC schedule regards the Nick Saban Coaching Tree, men who have coached under Saban and who now are head coaches. The SEC currently has four former Saban assistants who are head coaches in the league, and two of them will be on Alabama’s schedule each year — Jimbo Fisher, who came into the SEC as the head coach at Texas A&M this year, and Jeremy Pruitt, who left the Alabama staff at the end of the 2017 season to be head coach at Tennessee.

In those years in which Alabama plays Georgia (where former Saban assistant at Alabama Kirby Smart is head coach) and South Carolina (coached by former Saban assistant Will Muschamp), the Tide coach will be going up against three of his former assistants. This year’s schedule also includes a non-conference game against Louisiana-Lafayette, coached by Billy Napier, a former Bama assistant under Saban.

Saban is 11-0 against teams coached by former assistants in his time at Alabama — 2-0 vs. Mark Dantonio at Michigan State, 3-0 against Derek Dooley at Tennessee, 1-0 against Jimbo Fisher at Florida State, 2-0 against Will Muschamp at Florida, 2-0 against Jim McElwain at Florida, and 1-0 against Kirby Smart at Georgia.

The SEC method of rotating schedules means that all schedules are not equal. Although Tennessee has not been competitive as Saban has run up an 11-0 record against the Vols while at Alabama, Tennessee historically has been the strongest football team in the SEC among East Division schools. Each year Auburn has Georgia as its regular opponent from the East and LSU has Florida.

Obviously, if a team is facing a strong opponent as its regular interdivision rival and also draws a strong opponent on the rotating basis, it can be at a disadvantage.

For instance, this year LSU has Georgia as its rotating opponent while Alabama has Missouri, which looks like an advantage for Bama. In 2020 when Alabama plays Georgia, Auburn will be playing Kentucky, which looks like an advantage for Auburn.

In addition to Alabama having Missouri as its rotating opponent this year, here are the other SEC rotation games:

Arkansas hosting Vanderbilt; Auburn hosting Tennessee; Florida at Mississippi State; Georgia at LSU; Florida at Mississippi State; Kentucky at Texas A&M; and Ole Miss hosting South Carolina.