It’s a new-look SEC next season as the league drops divisions and welcomes Texas and Oklahoma into the fold. The Longhorns and Sooners both rank in the top 10 of our early-summer SEC football power rankings but couldn’t have more different 2024 schedules in their debut season. One finished with the hardest league slate while the other got handed the second-easiest. Strength of schedule is essential to making a run at the conference championship and building a College Football Playoff resume. The NCAA bases SOS on the combined win percentage of that team’s opponents from the previous season. Using that metric, industry veteran Phil Steele ranked all 16 SEC schedules for the 2024 season from easiest to toughest.
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Here are the toughest schedules in the SEC next season using opponent winning percentage, ranked from easiest to most difficult:
Conference Schedule: Vanderbilt, at Texas A&M, Auburn, at Alabama, Oklahoma, at South Carolina, at Mississippi State, Arkansas
The stage is set for a big season at Missouri. The Tigers are coming off an 11-2 season, face Murray State, Buffalo, Boston College and UMass in the non-conference, and have the easiest league schedule in the SEC, per Phil Steele’s metrics. Eli Drinkwitz’s crew plays just one team in the top five of our SEC power rankings, No. 4 Alabama at Bryant-Denny.
Conference Schedule: Mississippi State, at Oklahoma, Georgia, at Vanderbilt, Florida, at Arkansas, Kentucky, at Texas A&M
It’s a warm welcome for Texas as the Longhorns enter the SEC in 2024. The Longhorns face more of the league’s bottom-five teams (four) than teams ranked in the top five of our SEC power rankings. Texas’ tougher matchups, Oklahoma and Georgia, come in back-to-back weeks, but the Longhorns get the Bulldogs at home.
Conference Schedule: at Oklahoma, at Arkansas, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi State, at Georgia, at Vanderbilt
Any SEC schedule that includes Georgia and Alabama is a tough draw in the 16-team era. The trip to Oklahoma to start SEC play won’t be a gimme, either. However, Tennessee’s matchups with the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide come at home, and games against four of the league’s bottom five teams in our SEC power rankings make it a favorable schedule overall.
Conference Schedule: at South Carolina, Ole Miss, at Arkansas, at Texas A&M, Alabama, at Florida, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma
You can make a case that LSU deserved a favorable conference draw since it starts the season with a tough matchup against USC in Las Vegas. The Tigers miss a handful of the league’s toughest teams — Georgia, Texas, Missouri and Tennessee. Their lone matchups against teams in the top 10 of our SEC power rankings — Ole Miss, Alabama and Oklahoma — all happen at Death Valley.
Conference Schedule: Kentucky, at South Carolina, at LSU, Oklahoma, at Arkansas, Georgia, at Florida, Mississippi State
Ole Miss breathed a collective sigh of relief when it missed Alabama on its 2024 slate. The Rebels have lost eight-straight matchups with the Crimson Tide over the last eight seasons. Lane Kiffin’s crew also misses Texas, Tennessee and Missouri. However, the trip to Death Valley and home tilts against Oklahoma and Georgia will be big tests for a team with College Football Playoff hopes.
Conference Schedule: South Carolina, Georgia, at Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, at Florida, Auburn, at Tennessee, at Texas
Kentucky loaded its non-conference with cupcake matchups against Southern Miss, Ohio and Murray State. That should get the Wildcats halfway to bowl eligibility. Kentucky isn’t a bad team, but making the postseason won’t be a shoo-in, as oddsmakers are already penciling in losses for the Wildcats against Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas. South Carolina, Florida and Auburn are going to put up a fight, too.
Conference Schedule: at Florida, Arkansas, Missouri, at Mississippi State, LSU, at South Carolina, at Auburn, Texas
Mike Elko gets as good of an introduction to life as an SEC head coach as he could have hoped. The Aggies miss Alabama and Georgia in 2024, and they get to deal with their toughest conference opponents (LSU, Texas, Missouri) in College Station. Texas A&M heads to Gainesville for only the second time since joining the SEC and is unlikely to face a ranked team away from Kyle Field.
Conference Schedule: at Kentucky, at Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State, at Texas, Florida, at Ole Miss, Tennessee
Georgia ruled the SEC East for years as teams in the West scratched and clawed. The Bulldogs won’t have that luxury anymore after the conference dropped divisions. However, it’s still a manageable schedule for one of the nation’s top teams. Kirby Smart has never won in Tuscaloosa and gets a crack at it against Kalen DeBoer after coming up fruitless against Nick Saban. The trips to Texas and Ole Miss and the home matchup with Tennessee over the final four weeks will either bolster the Bulldogs’ résumé or shut them out for a second-straight season.
Conference Schedule: Georgia, at Vanderbilt, South Carolina, at Tennessee, Missouri, at LSU, at Oklahoma, Auburn
Welcome to the SEC, Kalen DeBoer. The new-look Crimson Tide open SEC play against the toughest team on its entire schedule in Georgia. Alabama will have time to catch its breath against Vanderbilt and South Carolina before ending the season in a sprint, facing four preseason top-25 teams over the final five weeks of conference play. Former Alabama quarterback and current ESPN analyst Greg McElroy identified five ‘losable’ games on the Tide’s schedule.
Conference Schedule: Arkansas, Oklahoma, at Georgia, at Missouri, at Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, at Alabama
This is where SEC schedules start to get really tough. Auburn kept Georgia and Alabama to one-score games in Hugh Freeze’s inaugural season but plays both on the road in 2024. The Tigers also have away matchups against two more top-10 teams in our SEC power rankings in Missouri and Kentucky. Home games against Oklahoma and Texas A&M could make-or-break Auburn’s postseason hopes.
Conference Schedule: at Auburn, Texas A&M, Tennessee, LSU, at Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Texas, at Missouri
This could be a make-it-or-break-it year for Sam Pittman in Fayetteville, and schedule makers didn’t do the Arkansas headman any favors. The Razorbacks face six of the SEC’s top nine teams next season and will likely be the underdog in seven of its eight league games, with the trip to Mississippi State being the lone exception.
Conference Schedule: Texas A&M, at Mississippi State, at Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, at Texas, LSU, Ole Miss
Florida arguably has the toughest schedule in the entire country next season. The Gators face two in-state rivals in Miami and Florida State in non-conference and have a brutal league schedule. Florida is the only SEC program scheduled to play 11 Power Four opponents in 2024, and four of those are against bonafide College Football Playoff contenders — Georgia, Texas, LSU, Ole Miss — in the final four weeks of the season.
Conference Schedule: at Missouri, Alabama, at Kentucky, Texas, at Auburn, South Carolina, at LSU, Tennessee
If the SEC was a boot, Vanderbilt would be a piece of gum stuck on the heel. The Commodores haven’t been competitive in the league for years and will be heavy underdogs in all eight league games this fall. Six of Vanderbilt’s eight conference matchups come against teams in the top 10 of our SEC power rankings.
Conference Schedule: at Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, at Alabama, at Oklahoma, Texas A&M, at Vanderbilt, Missouri
The Gamecocks stumbled to a 3-5 conference record last season and might endure a worse finish this fall. Shane Beamer’s crew is ranked behind all but one of its conference opponents in our SEC power rankings and has one of the toughest four-game stretches in the nation next season, clashing with LSU, Ole Miss, Alabama and Oklahoma in consecutive weeks.
Conference Schedule: Florida, at Texas, at Georgia, Texas A&M, Arkansas, at Tennessee, Missouri, at Ole Miss
Has any first-year head coach had it worse than Jeff Lebby in the last five years? The former Oklahoma offensive coordinator had to flip a roster that finished 5-7 last season and get it ready in time for one of the nation’s toughest schedules. The trips to Texas and Georgia in back-to-back weeks speak for themselves. There’s also the three-game stretch against Tennessee, Missouri and Ole Miss to end the season.
Conference Schedule: Tennessee, at Auburn, Texas, South Carolina, at Ole Miss, at Missouri, Alabama, at LSU
Brent Venables silenced a lot of doubters with a 10-3 finish last fall. Now, he looks to prove he can find success against an SEC slate, and a tough one at that. The Sooners get smacked in the face early with home matchups against Tennessee and rival Texas in their first three conference games. It doesn’t let up from there, either. Trips to Ole Miss, Missouri and LSU bookend a clash with Alabama over the season’s final five weeks. Ouch.
This article originates on 247Sports.
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