Florida Gators football schedule 2026: Most managable slate in years includes rare trip to Auburn

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Fresh off playing the most difficult two-year slate of games in college football history, the Florida Gators have been given a bit of a reprieve in Year 1 under head coach Jon Sumrall. With the SEC shifting to a nine-game league slate for the first time in history, Florida has seemingly avoided some of the toughest potential games in the conference while simultaneously losing some traditional opponents due to difficult decisions that came with creating a rotation that will ideally avoid some past scheduling issues.

The greatest casualty of the new SEC schedule rotation is the Florida-Tennessee rivalry, which has been extinguished after 36 years. (The league previously killed the game’s “Third Saturday in September” moniker by moving it all around the calendar.)

The Gators will instead play Georgia, Kentucky and South Carolina as “permanent” opponents over the next four seasons (2026-29) with the six other games rotating between home and away against the other 12 teams in the league. The idea is that, every four years, the 16 SEC teams will all play one another home and away.

Florida’s six rotational opponents for 2026 are Auburn, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Texas and Vanderbilt. The Gators will play the Rebels and Longhorns for the third straight season (Florida had not played Texas before that since 1940) while facing the Sooners for the first time in regular-season play.

This will also mark the third straight season in which the Gators will play 10+ Power Four opponents, a streak that should not end any time soon considering the nine-game SEC slate and annual showdown with Flordia State.

Let’s take a look at the schedule. Keep scrolling for a full breakdown with notes on key games.

Florida Gators football 2026 schedule

Sept. 5 vs. FAU
Sept. 12 vs. Campbell
Sept. 19 at Auburn
Sept. 26 vs. Ole Miss
Oct. 3 at Missouri
Oct. 10 vs. South Carolina
Oct. 17 at Texas
OFF
Oct. 31 vs. Georgia (Atlanta)
Nov. 7 vs. Oklahoma
Nov. 14 at Kentucky
Nov. 21 vs. Vanderbilt
Nov. 28 at Florida State

2026 schedule notes

The Good

• Florida does not have a Power Four opponent until Week 3.
• The Gators do not play consecutive away games, though it does travel to the Longhorns and play the Bulldogs in Atlanta with an OFF week in between. That’s an extremely tough stretch, but if Mercedes-Benz Stadium is ticketed in normal fashion for the Florida-Georgia game, the crowd should be close to legitimately split.
• None of UF’s opponents play it either coming from an OFF week or game against a lower-level opponent, a stark contrast to the last two years when that happened regularly.

The Bad

• The Gators will go a month without playing in the Sunshine State.
• Florida will not face traditional rivals LSU or Tennessee.
• While the schedule is less taxing than prior seasons, there are fewer marquee matchups.

Details

• Auburn in Week 3: First time meeting in Alabama in 15 years (2011). First matchup since 2019.
• Ole Miss in Week 4: Earliest meeting since 2007.
• Missouri in Week 5: First meeting since 2023.
• South Carolina in Week 6: First meeting since 2023.
• Texas in Week 7: Third meeting in as many seasons after not having played since 1940.
• Georgia in Week 9: First meeting outside Jacksonville, Florida, since 1995. First meeting in Atlanta across the history of the rivalry.
• Oklahoma in Week 10: First regular-season meeting. First matchup as SEC opponents.
• Kentucky in Week 11: Latest meeting as originally scheduled since 1991 (game moved in 2020) for a series dating back to 1967.
• Vanderbilt in Week 12: First meeting since 2023.