Nick Saban says Alabama one of LSU football's proposed annual SEC games. Here are other two | Report

BATON ROUGE - LSU football is set to face Alabama as one of its three annual rivals if a nine-game SEC scheduling format is adopted, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban told Sports Illustrated on Friday.

Saban, who was not pleased with the news, also mentioned that Alabama would face Auburn and Tennessee as its other two yearly SEC foes if there are three permanent opponents and six rotating.

He did not say who LSU's remaining two rivals would be in the new schedule. But according to The Advocate, LSU would face Texas A&M and Ole Miss as its other two yearly conference foes.

"I’ve always been an advocate for playing more (conference) games," Saban said to Sports Illustrated. "But if you play more games, I think you have to get the three fixed (opponents) right. They’re giving us Tennessee, Auburn and LSU. I don’t know how they come to that (decision)."

The SEC is shaking up its schedule format in 2024 when Texas and Oklahoma join the league from the Big 12. Since that news, SEC officials have been considering eight-game and nine-game conference schedule formats.

The nine-game format would have each SEC program play three "permanent opponents" each season and have six rotating opponents. In the eight-game format, teams would play just one permanent opponent.

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According to Saban, each school's three permanent opponents will be determined on traditional rivalries, geography and parity.

"We got three teams and two of them are in the top 10 and the other is in the top 10 a lot," Saban said. "Look historically over a 25-year history, and the three best teams in the East are Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. You look historically at 25 years, Alabama, LSU and Auburn are the three best teams in the West. So we’re playing them all."

Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser and the USA TODAY Sports South Region. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU football schedule 2024: Alabama a permanent rival, Nick Saban says