Auburn first-year head coach Hugh Freeze coached in his first Auburn-Georgia rivalry game on Saturday in front of a Jordan-Hare Stadium crowd that was brimming over.

And boy did the game deliver as the Auburn Tigers kept the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs on the ropes for all four quarters before ultimately losing 27-20.

“I just got to experience it for the first time and I loved every minute of it, other than the outcome,” Freeze said of the rivalry during a speaking engagement with the Monday Morning Quarterback Club in Birmingham.

The Auburn-Georgia rivalry, affectionately known as The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, is just one of many inner-conference rivalries that exist within the confines of the SEC. But as the SEC prepares to welcome both Texas and Oklahoma into the league, the effort to keep such conference rivalries alive has been a pressing one.

“Obviously the conference realignment has happened within our conference and I’m pretty confident that the SEC is pretty solid on where we are,” Freeze said. “And I think they’ll enjoy the new rivalries when they get to see Texas and Oklahoma among the great rivalries that we already have in our conference.”

The 2024 SEC schedules of each member football program was unveiled back in June with every pre-existing program set to play either Texas or Oklahoma in year No. 1 of the new-look conference.

Auburn drew a home meeting with Oklahoma in 2024 and will also host Arkansas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. The Tigers’ away games feature visits to Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Missouri.

But beyond the 2024 season? No one knows what’s next.

When asked about conference realignment after Saturday’s loss to Georgia, Freeze seemed certain the Iron Bowl wouldn’t be going anywhere.

“I think we’ll always have at least the Alabama rivalry,” Freeze said. “I think we’ll miss this one if… depending on the numbers and all that. I’ll let John (Cohen) handle all of that.”

But what if the ever-changing dynamics of college football and conference realignment forces the SEC to cut the Auburn-Georgia rivalry from both program’s annual schedules?

“I’ll miss playing Georgia every year,” Freeze said Monday.

A spokesperson from the SEC reiterated to AL.com Monday that the SEC scheduling format has not been determined past the 2024 season.