SEC Basketball Announces Three Permanent Opponents Per Team

A lot of football talk has surfaced at the SEC Meetings in Destin, Florida this week. But they are also discussing basketball. The league is again tinkering with the schedule and for my money, this is a good move.

Thursday the SEC announced a new men’s basketball scheduling format in which each team would gain three permanent opponents that they play twice a year to keep rivalries intact. Each team will also play the 10 other teams in the league at least once, with the final two match-ups of the 18-game conference season being scheduled on a rotating basis.

Seemingly, someone has been paying attention because they chose well. For Alabama, the three will be Auburn (of course), Mississippi State, and LSU. If you have followed Bama hoops through the years, you will agree these are the Tide's three biggest basketball rivals.

With perhaps only one fill-in-the-blank (SC-MSU), overall I think they pretty much nailed it.

Alabama - Auburn / Mississippi State / LSU
Arkansas - Missouri / Texas A&M / LSU
Auburn - Alabama / Ole Miss / Georgia
Florida - Kentucky / Georgia / Vanderbilt
Georgia - South Carolina / Florida / Auburn
Kentucky - Florida / Tennessee / Vanderbilt
LSU - Texas A&M / Alabama / Arkansas
Ole Miss - Mississippi State / Auburn / Missouri
Mississippi State - Ole Miss / Alabama / South Carolina
Missouri - Arkansas / Texas A&M / Ole Miss
South Carolina - Georgia / Tennessee / Mississippi State
Tennessee - Vanderbilt / Kentucky / South Carolina
Texas A&M - LSU / Arkansas / Missouri
Vanderbilt - Tennessee / Kentucky / Florida

The full SEC conference schedule will be released in August.