Not everyone is thrilled about this new schedule, and you can count me among the ranks of the disappointed.

PublishedSeptember 22, 2025 6:02 PM EDT•UpdatedSeptember 22, 2025 6:02 PM EDT

If I had a dollar for every time I muttered "what happened to the game I love" in regard to college football these days, I'd have enough money to buy the sport myself.

In the latest edition of the sport massacring the tradition its fans have grown to love, the SEC announced its new scheduling format Monday morning.

Each SEC school gets three permanent opponents and then rotates the rest of the schools in the conference.

On the surface, it would appear the league did a great job at balancing the schedules of schools so that no one benefits too much more than others.

Obviously, there are some exceptions, as teams like Texas A&M and Auburn have to play three higher-end programs every year, but the ones who really got the shaft were the fans.

The SEC may have done their best to preserve some of the upper-echelon rivalries in the conference, but as I looked over this graphic I slowly started to realize that we are being robbed of some of the most storied matchups of the last 30 years in the southeast.

First and foremost, where the hell is Alabama vs. LSU?

If your formative years of college football fandom occurred between the 2000s and 2010s, the showdown between the Tigers and the Tide was appointment television for the entire country.

The fact that it will no longer be a permanent fixture in the SEC really chaps me.

How about Florida and Tennessee? Fans of 90s college football have to be incensed that was taken away from us.

Speaking of Tennessee, did everyone like that showdown between the Vols and Georgia Bulldogs last weekend?

Me too, but I hope you enjoyed it, because that permanent matchup will be going by the wayside thanks to the new schedule.

Just as the Volunteers were starting to become good again, two of their three biggest rivalries have been relegated to the backburner.

This doesn't even mention other fun rivalries like Florida-LSU, Auburn-LSU, or others that have taken over our television sets for decades.

I've been able to find plenty of fans on social media who agree that we have once again been robbed, so this isn't just another case of old man Austin yelling at clouds.

I understand the SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey were put in a no-win situation here, but this still hurts as a fan of college football to see such storied rivalries fall into obscurity.

I'll have to tell my son all about the epic battles Florida and Tennessee used to have in the 90s and 2000s, and he will probably roll his eyes at me.

That's all I will have left of my childhood and adolescence as a college football fan.

The game I love doesn't exist anymore, and I guess I have to come to terms with that.