The SEC on Thursday night announced dates for Alabama’s 2026 conference football games.
Kickoff times for games will be released at later dates.
ALABAMA 2026 SCHEDULE
September 5 vs. East Carolina
September 12 at Kentucky
September 19 vs. Florida State
September 26 vs. South Carolina
October 3Â at Mississippi State
October 10 vs. Georgia
October 17 at Tennessee
October 24 vs. Texas A&M
October 31 — open date
November 7 at LSU
November 14 at Vanderbilt
November 21 vs. Chattanooga
November 28 vs. Auburn
December 5 — SEC championship game (Atlanta)
The 2026 season will be the first time the SEC uses a nine-game schedule. All SEC teams are still required to schedule a 10th game against an opponent from the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC or Notre Dame.
The SEC previously announced in September the nine conference teams that Alabama will play from 2026-29, using a new rotating 6+3 scheduling format. Alabama will play Auburn, Tennessee and Mississippi State annually and all other teams once every two years, rotating between home and away every four years.
Alabama previously made two changes to its 2026 non-conference schedule, cancelling a home-and-home series with West Virginia that would have included the Tide playing in Morgantown on September 5. Instead, the Tide will host East Carolina that day. Alabama also postponed a September 12 game against South Florida until 2032 and added FCS opponent Chattanooga to its schedule in the typical pre-Iron Bowl slot.
Alabama will open its SEC schedule September 12 at Kentucky, which will mark the earliest SEC game for Alabama since 2007, when it played at Vanderbilt on September 8.
The SEC’s 2026 schedule will include only one bye week per team; the 2019, 2024 and 2025 schedules most recently included two bye weeks for each team because of the number of Saturdays on the calendar between Labor Day and Thanksgiving.
LSU will be the only team that Alabama faces in 2026 coming off an open date, but that will be the typical joint Halloween open date during which Alabama is also off.