SEC football schedules mirror Big 12 schedules, which is not a good thing
Berry TramelOklahoman
The Big 12 and the Southeastern Conference are partners. It’s good company to keep for the Big 12.
The SEC is the ruling body of college football. Like Renaissance Europe, alliances and dynastic family ties mean security.
So the Big 12 has partnered with the SEC on the Sugar Bowl, a basketball challenge and general cooperation on a variety of NCAA issues.
Here’s another thing the Big 12 and SEC agree upon. College football scheduling.
The Big 12 and the SEC tend to have the worst non-conference schedules among the Power 5 Conferences. The Pac-12 and the Atlantic Coast lead the way in progressive scheduling. The Big Ten lands somewhere in the middle.
The Big 12 and the SEC bring up the rear.
In the Friday ScissorTales, we check in on Josh Heupel at Tennessee, debate a Ben Simmons/Thunder trade and salute a patron of saint of sportswriters, who was born and raised in Oklahoma. But we start with the SEC’s non-conference scheduling.
SEC football schedules are quite formulaic. Outside of renegade Georgia, the SEC teams play one fellow Power 5 Conference opponent, one NCAA Division I-AA opponent and two mid-majors.
Georgia, taking the lead nationally on tougher schedules, is an outlier. But otherwise, every SEC program follows the model.
In the SEC’s defense, its Power 5 opponent sometimes is a powerhouse. This year, for example, Auburn plays at Penn State and Georgia plays at Clemson and South Carolina hosts Clemson.
But to the SEC’s discredit, its mid-major lineup is not strong. Not this year. No Brigham Young or Boise State or Houston. The best mid-major on an SEC docket is Memphis or Liberty.
Here is how the 14 SEC non-conference schedules rank, based on quality of opponent and entertainment value:
1. Georgia: Clemson in Charlotte, Alabama-Birmingham, Charleston Southern, at Georgia Tech. Outstanding schedule. A national power. An in-state arch-rival. Even the mid-major UAB is decent.
2. South Carolina: Eastern Illinois, at East Carolina, Troy, Clemson. A good schedule in Shane Beamer’s inaugural season as the Gamecock coach. Clemson is a powerhouse, Troy is a decent mid-major and East Carolina is a road game.
3. Mississippi State: Louisiana Tech, North Carolina State, at Memphis, Tennessee State. Not bad. N.C. State is a middle-of-the-road Power 5 program, but Memphis has become an American Conference force, and Louisiana Tech usually is solid.
4. Auburn: Akron, Alabama State, at Penn State, Georgia State. The Tigers in Happy Valley doesn’t happen often. Enjoy it. Not much else on this bone.
5. Ole Miss: Louisville in Atlanta, Austin Peay, Tulane, Liberty. Mississippi-Louisville doesn’t move the needle a ton, but Liberty-Ole Miss is a fun game. Hugh Freeze has coached Liberty into mid-major success, and now the Flames take Freeze back to Oxford, where he coached the Rebels from 2012-16 before NCAA and personal scandal cost him his job.
6. Arkansas: Rice, Texas, Georgia Southern, Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Texas-Arkansas is no Big Shootout. It’s been 52 years since that historic Longhorns-Razorbacks game in the Ozarks. But in the 2021 SEC, it passes for high quality.
7. Alabama: Miami in Atlanta, Mercer, Southern Mississippi, New Mexico State. Miami-Alabama is not a bad game, but the rest of this schedule is dreadful.
8. Florida: Florida Atlantic, at South Florida, Samford, Florida State. The Seminoles are down, so the UF-FSU game isn’t what it once was. But the Gators playing USF in Tampa is at least interesting.
9. Louisiana State: at UCLA, McNeese State, Central Michigan, Louisiana-Monroe. Those final three games aren’t much, but LSU playing at UCLA is rare – the Tigers have played road games at Pac-12/10/8 schools only three times. Washington in 2009, Arizona in 2003 and Southern Cal in 1984.
10. Missouri: Central Michigan, Southeast Missouri State, at Boston College, North Texas. Back in the 1970s, Mizzou often would play four non-conference opponents better than its 2021 marquee game, at BC.
11. Vanderbilt: East Tennessee State, at Colorado State, Stanford, Connecticut. Stanford-Vandy is an academic showdown, but the football is lacking. Colorado State probably is better than most SEC mid-major foes.
12. Texas A&M: Kent State, Colorado in Denver, New Mexico, Prairie View. CU moved its home game from Boulder to the Broncos’ stadium at Mile High.
13. Tennessee: Bowling Green, Pittsburgh, Tennessee Tech, South Alabama. Four home games. Pitt the best, in a Johnny Majors Bowl. South Alabama next best. Not much of a schedule.
14. Kentucky: Louisiana-Monroe, Tennessee-Chattanooga, New Mexico State, at Louisville. ULM and New Mexico State are two of the sport’s least-successful mid-majors.
Power 5 opponents: 15 of 56 (.268; Pac-12 .305, Big 12 .267, ACC .411, Big Ten .333).
Power 5/quality mid-majors: 17 of 56 (.304; Big Ten .357; Pac-12 .500; Big 12 .467, ACC .464).
Road games: 11 of 56 (.196; Big Ten .214; Pac-12 .250, Big 12 .300, ACC .232).
I-AA opponents: 14 of 56 (.250; Big Ten .167; Pac-12 .250, Big 12 .300, ACC .250).
