What is Vanderbilt Football’s Toughest Game This Season? Ranking All 12 Games This Fall – Sports Illustrated

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Vanderbilt’s 2026 football season is still three months away, but there is no time better than the present to start talking about the upcoming season.
Vanderbilt enters the first season of the post-Diego Pavia era of the program. The Commodores are going to have a new quarterback at the helm while also having plenty of new faces on both sides of the ball.
What is also new this year for Vanderbilt and the other 15 SEC teams is the first season of the nine-game conference schedule. With an added SEC game and the elimination of what could have been a non-power conference opponent, the schedule will no doubt be more difficult.
The Commodores’ conference schedule features five road SEC games and four home conference games in addition to their three nonconference games – all of which will be played at home.
It is time to rank Vanderbilt’s 12 opponents on how tough the game could be, going from easiest to the toughest game.
Vanderbilt’s first game of the 2026 season should also be its easiest of the season. The Commodores host Austin Peay to open the year in a game that they more than likely should have no trouble with.
Austin Peay is the only FCS team that Vanderbilt faces this season. A season ago, the Governors went 7-5 and missed the FCS postseason. Vanderbilt and Austin Peay open at 6 p.m. CT Sept. 5 on SEC Network+.
The competition rises a little bit in the second week of the season for Vanderbilt, but only because Delaware is the first FBS team the Commodores face in 2026. The Blue Hens did make a bowl game and go 7-6 in their first year as a FBS team.
So there is some caution to be taken in that Vanderbilt should not disrespect Delaware, nor any opponent. But this game should be another week where Vanderbilt is expected to cruise to a victory before getting into the 10-week gauntlet that is before it.
Vanderbilt and Delaware will meet at 3:15 p.m. CT Sept. 12 on SEC Network.
Vanderbilt meets Arkansas right in the middle of the college football season in Nashville this October. Part of the reason why Arkansas is the third-easiest of Vanderbilt’s opponents is because this game is being played in FirstBank Stadium.
But the other reason is that Arkansas is not projected to be a team that is a shoe-in to be a bowl team. As a matter of fact, the win total for Arkansas this season has been set at 4.5 wins, per FanDuel Sports.
Arkansas lost its starting quarterback in Taylen Green and does not have a quarterback on the roster that is as experienced as Green was for the Razorbacks. The roster shift for Arkansas this offseason makes it one of Vanderbilt’s easiest opponents
This game could be a tricky game given it occurs the first Saturday of November and Mississippi State could surpass expectations by this time. But so also, by the time the college football calendar hits November, there is usually a good idea of what each team brings to the table.
Mississippi State is another team in the SEC that is projected to finish near the bottom of the conference in terms of preseason expectations. Mississippi State will have a new starting quarterback this season with Kamario Taylor, but it will be his first full season as a starter.
This game is Vanderbilt’s easiest road game of the five SEC road games it has because of those reasons.
Vanderbilt takes on NC State at home in the third week of the season. It is the first game the Commodores have against a power conference opponent this year before diving into their conference schedule.
NC State has a dynamic quarterback with CJ Bailey running the offense, but this game being early in the season is what puts the Wolfpack in this spot on Vanderbilt’s schedule. NC State is projected to be a team that will make a bowl game, but finding guys to replace players like running back Hollywood Smothers will not be something that gets figured out early in the season.
Vanderbilt takes on NC State at 11:45 a.m. CT Sept. 19 before hitting the road for SEC play the next week.
Before heading into its bye week, Vanderbilt travels to Kentucky for what could be an interesting matchup with the Wildcats in late October. While Kentucky is projected to be near the bottom of the SEC, it could surprise fans.
Kentucky brought in Will Stein from Oregon to be its new head coach. The former offensive coordinator from the Ducks could be the guy that turns Kentucky around, though it may take some time. 
Going to Kroger Field will not be an easy task for Vanderbilt either. Road games in the SEC are always a challenge and this game could serve as the perfect trap game for the Commodores given when the game is being played. This cannot be a game Vanderbilt takes for granted.
Yes, this is a rivalry game between Vanderbilt and Tennessee to finish the regular season and it will be a tough game for both teams. But it is not among the hardest games Vanderbilt will have to play this fall.
Partly due to the fact that this game is in Nashville, but also because the Commodores will be facing off against tougher opponents. This game lands right in the middle of Vanderbilt’s 12 games because Tennessee is in the midst of a quarterback battle. Even if Faizon Brandon wins the starting job for the Volunteers, there are still unknowns about how Tennessee’s season will go with an inexperienced starting quarterback.
By the time these two teams face each other on the field, stories for both Vanderbilt and Tennessee’s seasons will be near completion.
Vanderbilt begins conference play hitting the road to take on Auburn at the end of September. It is a grueling start for the Commodores against another team that has a new head coach.
Alex Golesh is in his first season as head coach of the Tigers after leaving South Florida. After succeeding in Tampa, Golesh is looking to bring Auburn back to relevancy in the SEC and he may be able to do it.
Vanderbilt has had success recently over Auburn, including a road win at Jordan-Hare in 2024. This is a different coaching staff and a different roster this year, though. A team that Auburn is anticipating will be much improved from the last two times it faced Vanderbilt.
Going to Florida for the final road game of the season will be quite the challenge for Vanderbilt. The Commodores go to Gainesville in the penultimate week of the regular season against a Florida team that has a new head coach with John Sumrall.
Florida could be another team this season that could be a wild card team in the SEC. The season Florida has will largely depend on the job of its new coaching staff. Even if Florida is not a team that is contending for the postseason or the highest bowl games, going into “The Swamp” is a difficult thing to do, which is why this game is listed high
Ole Miss may not have Lane Kiffin anymore, but Ole Miss still has its star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss. If there is anything fans know what Chambliss brings to the table is the way he pushes the ball down the field. Even after Kiffin left Ole Miss, Chambliss and his new head coach Pete Golding were able to put together a playoff to the national semifinals of the College Football Playoff.
It helps that Vanderbilt gets to host Ole Miss, but it is one of the hardest home games the Commodores will play this fall. If Chambliss plays anywhere near or above the level he played at a season ago, the Rebels will not be a team that many would want to see on their schedule.
What will be interesting to see is how Golding develops his defense as a defensive-minded head coach. Golding did what he could to bring in defensive talent through the portal, it is just a matter of how those additions progress.
Everyone remembers what happened the last time Alabama came to Nashville. It was one of, if not, the greatest day in Vanderbilt football history as it upset a No. 1 ranked Crimson Tide. This year, Alabama travels back to FirstBank Stadium.
This time around, it will be a mid-November game that could easily have some sort of impact on the playoff picture. The most interesting aspect when looking at Alabama’s 2026 outlook is the quarterback battle and how the starter ends up performing. The Crimson Tide could be a team that competes at the top of the SEC if things go right, but it also could not. Either way, Alabama is a tough opponent for just about any team. 
Vanderbilt going to Georgia for the second week of conference play and the first week in October is far and away the toughest game the Commodores will play this season.
Going between the hedges at Sanford Stadium, taking on a team that will almost certainly contend for the SEC Championship and the playoffs is one of the hardest things any team in college football can do. 
To add on top of that, there will also be the storyline of Vanderbilt freshman quarterback Jared Curtis playing on the road against the team he flipped from, if he is the starter by October.
Maybe the one positive is that Vanderbilt is playing Georgia in the front half of the season when the Bulldogs maybe are not playing at their maximum potential, but this game is the most challenging of all for the Commodores.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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