Mississippi State's 2026 football schedule features daunting October slate

The 2026 season will be a unique one for SEC football. It will be the league's first year playing a 9-game SEC schedule. What is that going to look like for the Mississippi State Bulldogs? We already knew their SEC opponents for next season, but now we have the full slate and dates for their 2026 games.

Mississippi State will open up the 2025 season hosting the ULM Warhawks in Starkville before taking a trip up to Big Ten Country to face a consistently solid Minnesota program in Minneapolis. They'll then begin SEC play with a road tilt against South Carolina. It should be noted that MSU's previously scheduled matchup with Troy is no more. That series has been cancelled in response to the new 9-game SEC slate.

After going to Columbia, the Bulldogs will return to Starkville for consecutive home games vs Missouri and Alabama before a bye week. After the bye, State heads to the bayou to take on Lane Kiffin's LSU Tigers. MSU then hosts Oklahoma before traveling to Texas. The Bulldogs open up the month of November with three-straight home games against Vanderbilt, Auburn, and Tennessee Tech for Senior Day.

The regular season ends in Oxford for the Egg Bowl against Ole Miss. For now, that game is slated for Saturday, November 28, and if that were to remain the case, it'd be just the first time since 2020 the game was played on a Saturday. However, every SEC game of Rivalry Weekend was announced for November 28, and it's unlikely the entire SEC slate would fall on that one day for such a big weekend. Moving some games to Black Friday, if not Thanksgiving, seems likely, and given history, the Egg Bowl could easily not be played on Saturday.

Mississippi State's 2026 October schedule is BRUTAL

Mississippi State's opening to the 2026 season seems reasonable, with the Bulldogs getting to ease their way into SEC play and not facing any truly dominant team in September. Their November slate also should be manageable with three home games that they should have chances to win (not to just assume Vanderbilt returns to being poor) and then the Egg Bowl, where you truly never know.

But those middle four games in the month of October? That's absolutely brutal. The Bulldogs host a pair of 2025 playoff teams in Alabama and Oklahoma, have to go to Death Valley to face an LSU squad sure to be loaded with talent in Lane Kiffin's first season, and play an Arch Manning-led Texas team on the road.

All four of those teams are likely to be preseason Top 15 opponents, meaning that finding a win in October may be incredibly difficult. That creates an odd situation where, in order to deliver on the winning season Bulldog fans are going to expect in Lebby's third year, MSU will need to get off to a hot start and close the year strong while riding out a midseason storm. The overall schedule isn't unmanageable, but the timing of games could create some peaks and valleys.