Take a look at the complete 2026 football schedule for your Texas Longhorns.
Texas Longhorns head football coach Steve Sarkisian made it clear following his team's absence from this year's College Football Playoff that he will honor the premier nonconference games coming up against Ohio State and Michigan.
Well ... he made it clear after expressing obvious frustration about 9-3 Texas' resume not stacking up with the rest of the field, largely due to, in Sark's eyes, the Week 1 loss to the Buckeyes that was the Longhorns' doing in purposely scheduling a tough opponent in advance to boost strength of schedule metrics that theoretically could've be used in the selection process.
No. 13-ranked Texas does still have its bowl game to go in 2025 - an appearance in the Citrus Bowl against the controversy-stricken No. 18 Michigan Wolverines - but this recent buzz about out-of-conference scheduling brings us to the SEC's announcement of the full 2026 schedule this week.
For the Horns, we knew Ohio State would be there (and maybe it helps that they're drawn in Week 2, now, and in Austin), along with protected annual rivals Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas A&M.
Here is the full schedule now filled in the rest of the way - equipped with every historical rivalry note and coaching-carousel move.
Takeaways from Texas Longhorns 2026 Football Schedule
There are many notable chunks in the Texas schedule that are interesting to look at upon their release.
After a nonconference slate between two nearby Lone Star State teams and the Buckeyes, the Longhorns travel to Knoxville to play the Tennessee Volunteers - a battle of "UT" supremacy - to open the newly-adopted nine-game SEC schedule.
You can bet that conference-opening weekend at Neyland Stadium will bring a raucous environment. It will be Texas' first game in Knoxville in program history.
After the Longhorns' traditional Red River Rivalry game at the State Fair in Dallas against the Oklahoma Sooners, the Longhorns begin a pivotal three-game home stretch. It begins with the team that killed Texas' chances of making this year's playoffs - the Florida Gators, who beat No. 9 Texas in the swamp on Oct. 4, 29-21, to start SEC play.
However, the Gators will be led by former/current Tulane coach John Sumrall, who is actively juggling the Green Wave's acceptance into the CFP as a G5 conference winner and his new position replacing Billy Napier in Gainesville.
Then comes a back-to-back with the Egg Bow opponents for the Horns, beginning with a Lane Kiffin-less Ole Miss squad that could look a lot different in two month's time. Kiffin has been succeeded by his defensive coordinator Pete Golding to coach this year's CFP for the 6-seeded Rebels (and beyond), and the former coach has also allowed the offensive coordinator to return and help the team compete for a national championship.
It's the best season in Ole Miss history, but Kiffin could lure much of the Rebs' talent to Baton Rouge and join him at LSU for next season.
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The Longhorns put up 45 points against Mississippi State this year and will look to replicate that on Halloween in 2026. Then comes an intriguing road matchup against Missouri, led by coach Eli Drinkwitz, who has been a candidate for major head coaching jobs over the last few offseasons after an impressive turnaround of the Tigers from pretenders to SEC contenders. Drinkwitz may be a dark-horse candidate to be contacted about the newly-vacant Michigan job, but no legitimate reports of that nature have surfaced.
Texas' first and only true back-to-back road affair travels to Kiffin's new stomping grounds, which also happens to be near the hometown of Louisiana-native and Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning. Kiffin pushed extremely hard to bring Manning - the nephew of Ole Miss legend Eli - to Oxford out of high school, but the five-star recruit remained fully committed to his and Sarkisian's vision in Austin.
Sarkisian and Kiffin will also reunite as the former USC and Alabama assistants face off as head coaches.
The Longhorns close out the regular season with two rivals they have gone 4-0 against since joining the SEC two years ago - the Arkansas Razorbacks and Texas A&M Aggies.
Texas beat Arkansas 52-37 this season at home and 20-10 the year prior on the road. The Horns return to Fayetteville in 2026 with the Razorbacks being led by new head coach Ryan Silverfield, the former head coach at Memphis who was hired this offseason after the midseason firing of Sam Pittman.
A regular-season finale at Kyle Field awaits on Black Friday, and again will likely have major conference and playoff implications. Texas' 27-17 win over A&M on Nov. 28 knocked the Aggies out of contention for the SEC Championship Game, but of course, did little in dropping the one-loss Aggies out of the CFP race. It's a head-to-head that remains as bitter as ever.
No. 7 Texas A&M begins its trek for its first national championship since 1939 by taking on controversial bid No. 10 Miami.
Other Headlines Around the SEC Schedule Release
* The opposite rivals of the Texas-Ohio State matchup will square off on the same day: Oklahoma vs. Michigan on Sept. 12 at "The Big House"
* Kiffin returns to Oxford as head coach of the LSU Tigers to face Ole Miss on Sept. 19
* Conference finalists Georgia and Alabama play in Tuscaloosa on Oct. 10 after splitting their series in 2025 (a Crimson Tide win in Athens and a Bulldogs win in the SEC title game in Atlanta)
* Kiffin makes another return to hostile territory as he faces Tennessee, the school he dramatically exited after one magical season in 2009, on Nov. 21
* Texas A&M and Oklahoma will play for the first time since 2011 when they meet on Nov. 21 - a week before Texas plays at Texas A&M.
* In addition to Kiffin, Golding, Sumrall and Silverfield, new coaches include Will Stein at Kentucky and Alex Golesh at Auburn