LSU football schedule 2026 revealed as Lane Kiffin era is ushered in
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BATON ROUGE — LSU football already knew which teams it would be playing during the Southeastern Conference‘s inaugural nine-game conference slate next season as those opponents were announced in September.
But now the dates and order of the games have been set for new LSU coach Lane Kiffin‘s first season in Baton Rouge. The league released the LSU 2026 football schedule’s SEC games along with the rest of the conference’s full slate of games, complete with dates during a special on SEC Network.
Kiffin’s first SEC game as the Tigers head coach will come against his former team on the road. In Week 3, LSU opens SEC play at Ole Miss on Sept. 19. LSU’s trip to Oxford will have a lot to heat to it as it’ll be the first time Kiffin returns to Ole Miss after deciding to leave to take the LSU job instead of staying with the Rebels.
Games against Alabama, Mississippi State, Texas and Texas A&M were already slated to be home games for the Tigers in 2026, while matchups with Arkansas, Ole Miss, Auburn, Kentucky and Tennessee are all going to be conference road games.
With the SEC moving to nine games, the league will be using a model that implements three annual rivalry games and for LSU. Those are Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Arkansas. The other six teams will rotate every season to ensure teams face other conference members at least once every two seasons and each school home and away in a four-year cycle.
Teams’ annual opponents will be reevaluated every four season as well to maintain competitive balance.
LSU football schedule 2026
Sept. 5: Clemson
Sept. 12: Louisiana Tech
Sept. 19: at Ole Miss*
Sept. 26: Texas A&M*
Oct. 3: McNeese State
Oct. 10: at Kentucky*
Oct. 17: Mississippi State*
Oct. 24: at Auburn*
Oct. 31: OFF WEEK
Nov. 7: Alabama*
Nov. 14: Texas*
Nov. 21: at Tennessee*
Nov. 28: at Arkansas*
Dec. 5: SEC Championship Game
*denotes SEC game
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: See when new LSU coach Lane Kiffin returns to Ole Miss in 2026
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