The SEC Forum at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I told my Longhorn wife that I was concerned about potential hornets nest.  

I kept thinking about how Arkansas always picked us to try to take their anger out on.  For years they were our season ender and they always got sky-high for LSU in a way that LSU could rarely match, even if we were better, even if we won.  Hogs no longer had UT to tangle with and it felt like we were who they were going to pretend they hated, in lieu of the actual bitter rival. 

Along came Texas A&M and it was the same story all over again.  Aggies became our season ender and the pigs got relegated to week who-cares, but they continued to frustrate us fans with their intensity we just couldn't return.  We won a lot in Fayetteville, but man, did many mediocre Hog teams scare the bejeezus out of better Tiger teams. 

So, along comes this year, and a middling LSU squad went to Fayetteville again, and I was fully prepared to lose.  A team like this is a prime target for the pigs.  To my surprise, LSU won handily and were never really threatened.  

I kept wondering about that, and then a couple weeks ago it hit me.  Maybe Arkansas didn't care about us anymore.  Maybe their attention is somewhere else.  Maybe an old foe is on the horizon who will take their best shot.  If so, it's Texas.  

I told Mrs. DeTiger all this and that I wasn't sure, but it was a working theory.  Texas is too good to lose that game to that team, but until I'm proven wrong that's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

I've seen the trend with the national mediots, and now even the SEC honks, is to criticize Texas' "weak" SEC schedule.  And yet I'm not hearing the same thing about Tennessee, which is... puzzling... 

For comparison, here are the two schools' SEC schedules for 2024.

Texas          Tennessee
v. MSU        v. MSU
v. KY            v. KY
v. FLA          v. FLA
v. OU           @ OU
v. UGA         @ UGA
@ Arky        @ Arky
@ Vandy     @ Vandy
@ A&M       v. Bama

I had not heard that, but I rarely pay attention to mediots.  I kind of like Josh Pate some.

OOC you have Michigan and NCSU, not much of a difference this year.  NCSU is 5-5 with no notable wins.

I don't criticize conference slates because you have zero control ostensibly.  Both teams could have chosen another P5 OOC opponent.

The criticism isn't being applied to OOC slate, it's specifically SEC schedule.  The various mediots are up in arms that Texas was "gift-wrapped" this super-easy SEC schedule.

I find it confusing for two reasons.  First, I've been assured for decades that even the very worst teams in the SEC are still a rolling ball of butcher knives dipped in poison and set on fire, so there should be no such thing as an "easy" SEC schedule.

And second, despite the fact that the entire schedule is almost identical to Tennessee's, nobody seems to be calling that out.  Of course after Tennessee took its second loss, they're not as much in the discussion as Texas anyway, but these points were being made well before then.

Yeah, I got it, even Vanderbilt is a tough out in the SEC when at home.  A three point win is a win.

Yup, I'm guessing Alabama would love to have Texas' 3-point win at Vanderbilt.

And Tennessee would love to have Texas' 10-point win at Arkansas.

I consider Georgia loss to Ole Miss an oddity as well.

I'm really just poking fun at the silliness of it all.

Could anyone have predicted that a 16-team conference with no divisions and playing only 8 conference games might end up with some unbalanced schedules and a slew of tied teams at the end of the season?

Well, yes.  I'm pretty sure everyone I know predicted such a thing.

This is the Georgia thread.  Texas thread is the one with Georgia in the title.

Come on man, I know you're more of a lurker these days, but please do try and keep up!