KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The Southeastern Conference has directed the University of Tennessee to postpone their upcoming game with Oklahoma as the conference prepares to integrate the Sooners and Texas as official SEC members.

SEC schools play eight conference games each year, six within their division and two from the opposite division, with the remaining four games filled by out-of-conference opponents. With Oklahoma and Texas set to join the SEC in 2025, the SEC has asked Tennessee and Georgia to postpone previously scheduled games against Oklahoma so they can maintain the appropriate number of non-conference games.

Tennessee and Oklahoma originally announced a home-and-home series in 2017. The Vols were set to travel to Norman for the first game in 2020 before a switch to an All-conference schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to its cancellation. OU was scheduled to come to Neyland Stadium in 2024.

Georgia was scheduled to play Oklahoma in 2023 and 2031.

The SEC will expand to 16 teams in 2025 when Oklahoma and Texas leave the Big 12 in 2025.

The Vols and Sooners completed in a home-and-home series in 2014 and 2015. Oklahoma opened the series with a 34-10 home victory in 2014 before Baker Mayfield led the Sooners to a double-overtime victory in Knoxville the following season. UT has an all-time record of 1-3 against Tennessee in a series that dates back to 1938.

“The Southeastern Conference has directed the University of Georgia and the University of Tennessee to postpone scheduled football games versus Oklahoma because the transition of Oklahoma into the SEC will not allow for the involved institutions to fulfill their respective contractual non-conference home-and-home appearance obligations. Because the second non-conference game in each of the Georgia-Oklahoma and Tennessee-Oklahoma series is scheduled to take place after Oklahoma joins the SEC in 2025, the Conference is directing the postponement of the Georgia at Oklahoma game in 2023 and the Oklahoma at Tennessee game in 2024 until such time that those matchups become part of the Conference rotation of games in future years.”

Southeastern Conference statement on Sept. 14