{"id":223586,"date":"2026-04-08T16:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/223586\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T16:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:40:08","slug":"sec-announces-2026-media-days-schedule-headed-to-tampa-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/223586\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC Announces 2026 Media Days Schedule, Headed to Tampa for First Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5m\">The SEC <a href=\"https:\/\/hailstate.com\/news\/2026\/4\/8\/sec-announces-appearance-schedule-for-2026-football-media-days\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dropped its appearance schedule<\/a> for this year\u2019s SEC Football Kickoff Media Days on Wednesday, which is always the first reminder that the next football season is closer than it looks. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5p\">July still feels like the middle of summer, but once Media Days shows up on the calendar, the countdown to fall gets a lot more real.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5s\">This year\u2019s event runs July 20\u201123 and will take place in Tampa, marking the first time the league has brought Media Days to the city. Tampa becomes just the fourth location outside Alabama to host the event, joining Atlanta, Nashville and Dallas. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udde3\ufe0f Talkin&#8217; season coming to Tampa!<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udccd Tampa, Fla.<br \/>\ud83d\uddd3\ufe0f July 20-23, 2026<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SECFB?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#SECFB<\/a> x <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SECMD26?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#SECMD26<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tASgdPNpUj\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/tASgdPNpUj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Southeastern Conference (@SEC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SEC\/status\/1973093016941342727?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5y\">It\u2019s another sign of how the SEC continues to stretch its footprint and turn Media Days into a traveling showcase.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"61\">As usual, the week will bring together every SEC head coach, a handful of players from each program, and media from across the country. It\u2019s the league\u2019s unofficial kickoff to the season. Four days of interviews, storylines, and the annual reminder that whatever happened last fall is officially in the rearview.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"64\">A more detailed schedule, including TV windows, daily rotations and the full list of attending players, will come later. For now, the league has simply locked in the order and the dates. SEC Network will once again carry the event wall\u2011to\u2011wall.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"67\">And while July still feels a long way off, this is how the ramp\u2011up always starts. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6a\">One schedule release turns into another. Spring ball wraps. Summer workouts begin. Then suddenly Media Days arrives, and the season that felt months away is right around the corner.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6d\">The 2026 season isn\u2019t here yet, but announcements like this are the first hint that it\u2019s coming fast.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Talkin&#8217; ball. \ud83d\udde3\ufe0f<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SECMD26?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#SECMD26<\/a> Appearance Schedule \u2935\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QDnVT8G6DQ\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/QDnVT8G6DQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Southeastern Conference (@SEC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SEC\/status\/2041906266369368430?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 8, 2026<\/a>Monday, July 20<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">Kentucky \u2013 Will Stein<br \/>Missouri \u2013 Eliah Drinkwitz<br \/>Oklahoma &#8211; Brent Venables<br \/>Tennessee \u2013 Josh Heupel<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday, July 21<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6q\">Auburn \u2013 Alex Golesh<br \/>Georgia \u2013 Kirby Smart<br \/>South Carolina \u2013 Shane Beamer<br \/>Vanderbilt \u2013 Clark Lea<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday, July 22<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6v\">Alabama \u2013 Kalen DeBoe<br \/>Florida \u2013 Jon Sumrall<br \/>Ole Miss \u2013 Pete Golding<br \/>Texas A&amp;M \u2013 Mike Elko<\/p>\n<p>Thursday, July 23<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">Arkansas \u2013 Ryan Silverfield<br \/>LSU \u2013 Lane Kiffin<br \/>Mississippi State \u2013 Jeff Lebby<br \/>Texas \u2013 Steve Sarkisian<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The SEC dropped its appearance schedule for this year\u2019s SEC Football Kickoff Media Days on Wednesday, which is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-223586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}