SATURDAY DOWN SOUTH
Take that Alabama ... and other winners and losers from 2024 SEC schedule release
Matt Hayes | 2 hours ago
This is what happens when you lead a contingent of schools to flip against a 9-game schedule and embarrass the league office.
Welcome to the state of spite, Alabama. Good luck with that 2024 schedule.
The SEC announced the 2024 schedule Wednesday night, and the first season with a 16-team league that includes Texas and Oklahoma has a handful of distinct winners and losers.
But the focus, as it always is, was on Alabama.
It was Alabama and coach Nick Saban and athletic director Greg Byrne who for years advocated for a 9-game SEC schedule — and then backed away from that stance 2 weeks ago during the critical vote and gave cover to other schools to vote for 8 games and temporarily stall the move.
The league was embarrassed — the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 all play 9-game conference schedules. Commissioner Greg Sankey was clearly agitated and now here we are.
Alabama’s schedule includes games against the 3 permanent opponents that the Tide would’ve had in the 9-game schedule (Auburn, LSU, Tennessee), a home game against SEC king Georgia and a road game at Oklahoma.
Well done, league office. Well done.
On with the winners and losers of the 2024 SEC schedule:
Winner: Georgia
Home: Auburn, Florida (Jacksonville), Mississippi State, Tennessee.
Road: Alabama, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Texas.
The skinny: You’re kidding, right? What could be the 3-time defending national champion, and the only stressful game appears to be Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Unless Texas truly is back.
The Dawgs gets Tennessee at home (the natural rotation from the current schedule), and until Texas proves on the field that it can compete in the SEC, the remainder of the road schedule is favorable.
The SEC couldn’t avoid Alabama and Georgia playing, especially with the hype of the new 16-team league and the new 12-team Playoff. Other than that, the schedule is a gift.
Loser: Oklahoma
Home: Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas (Dallas).
Road: Auburn, LSU, Missouri, Ole Miss.
The skinny: Welcome to the SEC, Sooners. Now you know why Lincoln Riley got out of dodge before this thing showed up.
OU got 3 league home games, and 2 of them (Alabama and Tennessee) are brutal. Texas, a neutral game in Dallas, is considered a home game in 2024.
The Sooners also will travel to 2 of the toughest place to play in the SEC (LSU, Auburn), and as long as Lane Kiffin is around, a game in Oxford will be increasingly difficult.
Winner: LSU
Home: Alabama, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt
Road: Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, Texas A&M
The skinny: It will be Year 3 for LSU under coach Brian Kelly, and more than likely with an experienced quarterback (Garrett Nussmeier) and a loaded roster.
LSU has the talent this season to reach the 4-team Playoff. It’s a lock for the 12-team Playoff in 2024 with this schedule.
Alabama is an annual opponent, and the Tigers got Oklahoma from the league office decision to have all 14 current SEC teams play Texas or Oklahoma. Both of those games — the toughest of the schedule — are at Tiger Stadium.
We may be seeing the beginning of LSU’s championship run under Kelly in the SEC.
Loser: Texas
Home: Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State.
Road: Texas A&M, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma (Dallas).
The skinny: You didn’t think Oklahoma and Texas were going to show up in Year 1 with easy schedules, did you?
The Longhorns play Georgia and Florida in Austin, and as distressing: The renewal of 2 former hated rivalries — Texas A&M and Arkansas — are both on the road. And, of course, because Texas A&M was a winner in the schedule release.
Winner: Texas A&M
Home: Arkansas, LSU, Missouri, Texas
Road: Auburn, Florida, Miss State, South Carolina
The skinny: It begins and ends with renewing the Texas rivalry in College Station. That alone would make the day a win for the Aggies.
But outside of LSU (at College Station), who on that schedule scares anyone? The 2 toughest road games are against blue-bloods trying to find their footing (Auburn, Florida).
The 2024 season will be QB Conner Weigman’s 3rd season, and the Aggies’ roster should be more talented than it has ever been under coach Jimbo Fisher.
Loser: Florida
Home: Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
Road: Georgia (Jacksonville), Mississippi State, Tennessee, Texas.
The skinny: The SEC was set to eliminate Florida and LSU playing annually with the 9-game schedule but kept the game for 2024.
Florida gets a brutal road schedule — Texas, Tennessee, and a rock fight in Starkville against Mississippi State — and the annual Georgia game in Jacksonville.
One more punch in the gut for 2024: The Gators have nonconference games against Miami and UCF, and at Florida State. That’s 11 Power 5 games.
Other highlights:
— The SEC was so mad at Alabama, it punished Vanderbilt: games against Alabama, Tennessee, Texas and LSU.
— South Carolina’s road schedule includes Alabama, Oklahoma and Clemson.
— The SEC is clearly trying to force a rivalry between Florida and Texas A&M. The teams have played 4 times since the Aggies arrived in the SEC in 2012.
— The SEC kept the Georgia-Auburn rivalry, leaving Auburn with heavyweight games against Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.
— 3 teams will play what could be the 2 best teams in the league (Georgia, LSU) in 2024: Alabama, Florida, Ole Miss.
