Five SEC trap games in 2026 that could upend the college football playoff race, from LSU to Georgia

Any college football fan worth their salt knows a thing or two about "trap games."

Also known as "lookahead games," trap games are tricky spots on a team's schedule where the more talented team is usually overlooking their current opponent because of an upcoming game against a more significant opponent.

They may be looking past a lesser opponent in anticipation of a bitter rival that they haven't beaten in a while, or maybe it's a team they feel like they need to dispatch in order to gain the inside track to a conference championship.

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Either way, overlooking anyone in a league as competitive as the SEC is a recipe for disaster, but every team is guilty of it from time to time.

Right now, we are, by definition, technically committing the mortal sin of "looking ahead," but I thought it would be a fun offseason exercise to highlight five potential trap games that could shake the very foundation of the 2026 SEC season.

Now that we've gotten the preamble out of the way, let's dive in.

We start off with one that is a bit off the radar, but aren't all trap games "off the radar" by their very nature?

Anyway, the LSU Tigers will have their bright, shiny new toy of a head coach in Lane Kiffin at their disposal, and if all goes according to plan, the Bayou Bengals will be right in the thick of the SEC and College Football Playoff race at this point in the season.

LSU will have an early test in the form of a non-conference game against Clemson, and two very worthy opponents in Texas A&M and Kiffin's old flame, the Ole Miss Rebels.

They also finish the season on a four-game run of having to face Alabama, Texas, Tennessee and rival Arkansas.

Sandwiched in between all those Goliaths is lowly Mississippi State, led by third-year coach Jeff Lebby.

There is a good chance Kiffin and crew view this as a spot to relax in between the two peaks of their season, but that would be foolish for a multitude of reasons.

For starters, Kiffin cultivated a bit of a reputation while in Oxford of dropping at least one game a season that he shouldn't have (see: 2024 Kentucky), and although the talent profile has ratcheted up considerably for him in Baton Rouge, there's a chance the "lookahead" is still in his DNA.

For the Bulldogs' part, they have been a tough out for ranked teams dating back to last season, as they knocked off 12th-ranked Arizona State and took both 15th-ranked Tennessee and 22nd-ranked Texas to overtime before gracefully bowing out.

Keep your eye on this one, as things could get hairy if LSU and Kiffin don't respect their opponent.

From one end of the Magnolia State to the other, the Ole Miss Rebels will be looking to prove that their success in the first half of the 2020s was more than just the product of having Lane Kiffin as their coach, and luckily for them, they will have a chance to prove it in Week 3, when the Tigers of LSU come to town.

The problem with such an emotional showdown is that there is always another game to play afterward, and the Rebels will be hitting the road to take on the Florida Gators in The Swamp.

Any game would probably be a trap game the week after "welcoming" the coach who burned you for supposedly greener pastures, but playing Florida in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium presents a unique challenge.

Rebels fans probably remember their last trip there, a 2024 upset loss that all but knocked their team out of the Playoff picture, but that wasn't an isolated incident.

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Even with an underachieving coach like Billy Napier at the helm, the Gators knocked at least one top-10 team off its perch each season he was in Gainesville (2022 Utah, 2023 Tennessee, 2024 Ole Miss and 2025 Texas).

The Gators, shockingly, have a slight talent advantage over the Rebels when going purely off of recruiting classes and retention efforts, and that coupled with the emotional exhaustion from the week prior and the magic of The Swamp will make this a classic trap game for Ole Miss.

Yes, I know this one is technically a rivalry game, but hear me out.

Wedged in between meetings with the LSU Tigers and Texas A&M Aggies, the Texas Longhorns will welcome the Arkansas Razorbacks to Austin.

The Hogs will be breaking in first-year head coach Ryan Silverfield and will be operating at a significant talent disadvantage, but that might be to Texas' detriment.

The Longhorns will no doubt be playing the 2026 season with the burden of expectations placed upon them, and a win over LSU the previous week will only make that regular-season finale with the Aggies all the more important.

What better spot to jump up and bite them than the week in between two of the biggest games of their season?

To their credit, the Razorbacks were plucky last year against every ranked opponent on their schedule not named Notre Dame, so it's not like Texas is going against some FCS school as a tune-up in between physical matchups against playoff-caliber teams.

I'm not saying Arkansas will win this one, but don't be shocked if you check your phone and this is a one-possession game late in the second half.

I couldn't talk Texas without throwing Oklahoma into the mix, and Texas is a big reason for this game being on the list in the first place.

Much like the Longhorns, the Sooners will have sky-high expectations placed upon them heading into the 2026 season, and that neutral-site rivalry game against Texas could be the launch point for a great season.

But the week after hasn't been too kind to Oklahoma, historically.

Since Brent Venables took the head coaching job in Norman back in 2022, the game after the Red River Shootout has been a shaky one at best for the Sooners, including a sleepy two-point victory over a below .500 UCF Knights team in 2023 and a blowout loss to South Carolina the following year.

Kentucky will have new coach Will Stein manning the headset, which could mean some renewed vigor in the Bluegrass State, so the Sooners would be wise not to let Texas "beat them twice" in this one.

Oklahoma faces a murderer's row of games to start their season, including a Week 2 showdown against Michigan, on the road against Georgia and the aforementioned Red River game in Dallas.

If the Sooners think they can view this date on the calendar as a chance to catch their breath, I don't think it will be that easy.

For all of his accomplishments as the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs, there is one program that continues to stick in the craw of Kirby Smart.

The two-time national championship-winning head coach is just 2-7 against the Alabama Crimson Tide in his tenure in Athens, and he hasn't fared much better against the Tide since Nick Saban retired, sporting a 1-2 record against Kalen DeBoer after he took over for the legendary Saban in Tuscaloosa.

But why am I talking this much about Alabama if Georgia plays Vandy in Week 5?

Well, as you can probably guess, this game falls right before the Dawgs travel to T-Town to take on the Tide, and Smart will no doubt have that game circled with every red Sharpie he owns.

Vanderbilt loses a ton of talent from last year's upstart 10-win team, including quarterback and Heisman finalist Diego Pavia and second-round draft pick Eli Stowers, but Clark Lea's squad should not be overlooked.

If the Bulldogs get caught looking ahead to their showdown with Bama (and Oklahoma the week after that), it could spell trouble for Kirby and the boys.

Smart wants that Alabama game badly, and will likely be game-planning for it weeks in advance, but will that come with a cost?

The Commodores have slain giants in recent memory, and a little schedule luck could have them in position to do it all again in 2026.