2016 SEC Football Schedule Announced: Full Details and Reaction

We're barely halfway through the 2015 SEC schedule, but college football's strongest conference is already looking ahead to 2016. The SEC announced its 2016 schedule Thursday, which runs from a Sept. 1 clash between Vanderbilt and South Carolina until Dec. 3's conference championship game. The full schedule can be viewed in full here.   

As is the case every season, the SEC member schools play eight conference games, one against each member of their division and two from the opposing side. The biggest change from 2015 to 2016 is a new SEC requirement that says schools must play at least one nonconference game against a Power Five school. (Independent teams such as Notre Dame, BYU and Army are also eligible.)       

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive detailed the decision in a 2014 statement, per Ben Estes of Sporting News:

"

This has been a thoughtful and deliberative process that has resulted in maintaining the current format and adds a provision that will bolster our collective annual non-conference schedule. Critical to maintaining this format is the non-conference opponent factor which gives us the added strength-of-schedule we were seeking while allowing continued scheduling flexibility for institutional preferences, and acknowledges that many of our institutions already play these opponents.

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Alabama will play USC Week 1 to fulfill that requirement, while LSU (Wisconsin), Auburn (Clemson), Ole Miss (Florida State) and Texas A&M (UCLA) also took the opportunity to schedule a high-profile matchup early in the season. (Florida will also be playing Florida State to fulfill its requirement, but that's an every-year occurrence.)

Date	Matchup
Saturday, Sept. 3	Alabama vs. USC
Saturday, Sept. 3	Clemson at Auburn
Saturday, Sept. 3	LSU vs. Wisconsin
Saturday, Sept. 3	UCLA at Texas A&M
Monday, Sept. 5	Ole Miss vs. Florida State
Saturday, Sept. 10	Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech
Saturday, Sept. 17	Texas A&M at Auburn
Saturday, Sept. 17	Alabama at Ole Miss
Saturday, Sept. 24	LSU at Auburn
Saturday, Sept. 24	Georgia at Ole Miss
Saturday, Oct. 8	LSU at Florida
Saturday, Oct. 8	Alabama at Arkansas
Saturday, Oct. 22	Texas A&M at Alabama
Saturday, Oct. 22	Arkansas at Auburn
Saturday, Oct. 22	Ole Miss at LSU
Saturday, Oct. 29	Florida vs. Georgia
Saturday, Oct. 29	Auburn at Ole Miss
Saturday, Nov. 5	Alabama at LSU
Saturday, Nov. 12	Auburn at Georgia
Saturday, Nov. 12	Ole Miss at Texas A&M
Thursday, Nov. 24	LSU at Texas A&M
Saturday, Nov. 26	Auburn at Alabama
Saturday, Nov. 26	Florida at Florida State
Saturday, Dec. 3	SEC Championship Game

Of the major contests inside the conference, Week 8 will put on three marquee matchups. Texas A&M travels to Alabama, Auburn hosts Arkansas and Ole Miss travels to Baton Rouge for a head-to-head battle with LSU. Rivalry Week to close the regular season will also draw a ton of attention, but there are no major changes in how that will be handled.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.