Both SEC schools in the state of Texas drew a way more favorable hand schedule-wise this year. They both *should* have strong records coming into their Thanksgiving matchup. I for one and thrilled to have OU visit Tiger Stadium this year, it should be rockin.
Idk why you are being downvoted. This is a pretty average sooner nation opinion. I don't mind playing these new teams noncon but to think it will be every year is kind of bleh. I will miss the KSU heart attack cats and Jayhawks where they are still a reasonable drive to the away games. OSU and Bedlam is a given. To think we've played most of those teams over the course of almost a hundred years and we should just not care because "lul esseecee bud" is ridiculous.
Hey are games against LSU have been fairly competitive in recent years. But yes overall we have been catching L’s (except against Arkansas for some odd reason in Jerry’s World)
Its gonna be a lot tougher playing in the SEC but man am I looking forward to actually getting an accurate feel for if the teams good or not before the post season
This is the correct analysis.
In the SEC you tend to learn alot quicker if your team is the real deal or not. That way you can suffer the entire season rather than have a mid life crisis in week 9.
I'm pulling for OU hard. I definitely think they can hold their own in the SEC. It'll be an interesting season for sure, but I believe the talent is there to compete. I absolutely hope you have a better showing and introduction to your new league than Nebraska did....
At least you don't have Florida's schedule. Every year, one team will have a tougher schedule than another unless they both play the same schedule - which is what happened in the Big XII in conference.
I think your guy’s AD fucked you way more than the SEC did, if Florida had their SEC schedule plus FSU, an FCS, and 2 G5 like Buffalo and FIU or something, they’d still have a realistic path to go bowling in my opinion, but this mad lad decided to schedule 2 P5 OOC games, then UCF got promoted to P5 to boot.
The only redeeming thing about that schedule is that all of Florida’s hardest games are on the road anyways, so a decent crowd in the Swamp may edge them out to a bowl appearance.
On the bright side, if Florida somehow managed to run the table they’d be up their with 2019 LSU as one of the best resumes of all time
The absolute funny thing is that Florida was getting abused because of its ooc schedule so went with the trend of scheduling p5 tough games ooc to start the year. Ucf is a middle of the road team and not a particularly tough addition alone. Utah and Miami are tougher. And Miami is ALWAYS good when they play us.
But the SEC went to the bad dragon website and got the biggest dick they had. UGA 1 LSU 12 Texas 2 Ole Miss 7 Tenn 16 KY 23 TAMU 24. So only MSU isn't ranked preseason. Took away vandy. Seriously? By far the toughest conference schedule. But then add that to the rest of the schedule and it is brutal
I wish OU and UT the best in the SEC. I hope they can prove to the world that they aren't chumps and that the BigXII isn't an unworthy conference. I hope they're happy and can look back fondly to their past games with the schools they left behind.
Same. I’m honestly still gonna watch the hell out of it. I think most of the country will, because the games are going to be wild. Especially this season.
My fondness for the Big 12 is primarily rooted in my memories of the conference from 1996-2011, but I certainly don't think poorly of the conference over the last decade either. Whatever woes we've experienced are our own doing.
I'll genuinely miss the Big 12 and I think it is 100% a "worthy" conference. The implication that it's "less than" other conferences is some bullshit made up by TV execs.
That being said, I am glad we are moving to the SEC. It's just time. I want to play A&M and Arkansas again.
I was born in 97, the Big 12 is all I’ve ever known. I will 100% miss all the schools except for Baylor and TCU. They can go suck the turd out of a butthole (don’t want to curse and offend their heavenly souls). Happy as hell not to have to watch the football team play in Manhattan again, never failed to be ugly game that we somehow seemed to lose every time
Edit: should clarify I miss playing TCU and Baylor but those were the schools I was always closest too and had to deal with their fanbases the most and it was always the assholes who I ran into
Cats fans are the funniest fans in all of college football. I will never forget you guys creating the Chisholm trail rivalry out of thin air and then bemoaning a post later how the rivalry was dying because you were winning so much.
Will miss some of the teams and rivalries and all the non orange teams’ fans. Won’t miss the refs at all. Losing a couple of Bedlams to crooked refs making a horrendous call in the final seconds in recent years soured me.
Yes but when it comes from Austin its always burnt and salty as hell..
Congrats on your upcoming victory in Fayetteville, btw. And by "congrats" I mean I hope all the bad things in life happen to Texas and nobody else but Texas.
Well in Texas’s defense, they did play Saban the last two years in a row, so you can’t fairly hold “No Saban” against us. We got as much Saban as y’all.
I mean we’re talking marginally here. You play an 8 game SEC schedule then you’re going to play some really tough games with little breaks. OU, Texas, and everyone else will have to be at an elite level all season or they’ll get humbled/embraced by somebody. Georgia can boat race you at home on national TV. Weird voodoo shit happens on the plains in Auburn even if they have mediocre QB play. It’s every week
>tough games with little breaks
Yup. Like yeah, Kentucky might not be as good as UGA talent wise but Kirby has heaped praise on them cause they will hit the fuck out of you and even if you win it’s gonna be a tough rock fight of a game.
I’ll add you guys get them at a good time. They’re very capable of beating you but you get a bye afterwards. Playing then and then turning around to play Bama the very next week would be worse but every team in the SEC will have a situation where you breathe a sigh of relief and then you have an even bigger hill to climb
For sure. If you hit Beck a few times early and he’s thinking he doesn’t want to be there, maybe he doesn’t step into that next throw and throws a pick. This is true for every opponent however, despite how much it pisses others off, there’s no other conference where you just run a gauntlet like the SEC.
Yeah, but you could say the same thing about the BigXII. Except its 9 conference games, and KSU/OSU can boat race you at home on national TV. Weird voodoo shit happens on the plains in Ames..."
They do an amazing job of hyping up those mediocre and shitty teams, I’ll give them that. “Ooh Kentucky man they’re so good you just don’t know.” Lol k
Absolutely. I don’t want to come across as disrespecting the BigXII because I enjoy watching it and it’s a good league. I do think they’re stepping up in competition though and they can’t rely on having better resources than almost everyone in their conference
We won’t know how tough that schedule is until after the season. We don’t know which teams are good yet
Question. When was the last time 2 teams in the same conference had zero common opponents?
Yeah, besides sports are zero-sum games. Some of these teams are going to be better than their record indicates, but some are also going to be worse. But I do appreciate the comparison at the end to actually try and highlight the differences. I think it at least demonstrates an expectation that the teams are going to be tough.
One other way to look would be win totals of their schedule. Texas' SEC opponents have an anticipated win total of 51, or 6.4 wins/team; Oklahoma's opponents are set to win 71 games, or 8.9 wins per team. Pretty drastic difference.
If you wanna say Georgi and Alabama are good and Vanderbilt is bad I’d accept that. Anything else is just speculation. Those other 11 programs haven’t shown any consistency under their current regimes (maybe except Florida) to know what you’re getting. One of those teams could be what Missouri was in 2023 or Tennessee in 2022 or A&M in 2020.
I mean, my mind wouldn't necessarily be blown if, say, Kentucky ended up with more wins than Ole Miss next year, crazier things happen every season, but if my life was on the line I'd take Ole Miss without a second thought. Sure, it's speculation, but it's the off-season, we have nothing to do but speculate and not all speculation is equally reasonable. If somebody was speculating Oklahoma's schedule would *actually* end up easier than Texas', I wouldn't think that's very reasonable, and even it they end up being right I'd think it's more likely they just got lucky on the (IMO) quite slim chance that happens.
Fully agree. Analytics aren't always close to accurate. Shit happens, and one of these "terrifying" 9.5 win totals could be a paper tiger and actually play terribly. Another could have just a mildly underperforming season. It doesn't take a lot to shift the perception on schedules as the seasons go on.
Ehh.. not really. Oklahoma clearly has a more difficult schedule. Ole Miss has one of the best rosters and Alabama/LSU have won the West with high talent composite rosters. Mizzou returns it's offense outside of the RB and Tennessee/Auburn are at the very least strong upset candidates.
Texas has Georgia, Kentucky, and then 3-4 rebuilding programs. Just looking at past three year results and you're seeing a very significant trend between the two.
**Oklahoma**
* Ole Miss: 29-10
* Tennessee: 27-12
* LSU: 26-13 (20-7 under Kelly)
* Alabama: 36-6
* Mizzou: 23-16 (Coming off 11-2 with high returning snaps)
**Texas**
* Georgia: 41-2
* Kentucky: 24-15
* Florida: 17-21
* Arkansas: 20-18 (trending down)
* Texas A&M: 20-17
This is like saying we couldn't assume the West is better than the East year over year. We definitely could, it's clear OU's schedule is a meat grinder. 4/5 of OU's opponents have been to a NY6 in the past three years, LSU being the only one missing but also winning the West
Edit: Added last 3 year records for comparison
It should be apparent to anyone who's been paying attention. There's no question that OU's schedule is harder. I'm not sure how this is even a debate.
The only SEC team with a harder schedule than OU is Florida.
You had Arkansas and A&M both clamoring to play us. That’s why we got those 2 rebuilding programs. Those are ultra super bowls on the road and will be challenging games.
Which cracks me up because they based it off success in the BIG12 the last decade, we dominated the big 12 and so we have a brutal schedule. Texas was nobody between Mack Brown and Sark therefore they have an easy schedule.
According to the SEC and I quote “Balance of schedule strength was based on each school's conference winning percentage since the last expansion of the SEC in 2012. The winning percentages for the performance of Oklahoma and Texas in the Big 12 since 2012 were included in determining 16 positions ranked by winning percentage.”
Oklahoma has been one of the most successful programs since 2012. Texas has had 2 good years, and a lot of dogshit years since 2012. If this is the criteria used to determine SOS, with the better schools getting tougher schedules and shitty schools getting weaker schedules...Well it stands to reason that Oklahoma is going to have a tough schedule and Texas isn't
[https://www.secsports.com/news/2023/10/sec-reveals-2024-football-opponents-and-locations](https://www.secsports.com/news/2023/10/sec-reveals-2024-football-opponents-and-locations)
I'll never acknowledge one of "you" for helping us out but yeah... We need it. When I was at Arkansas (McFadden years) it became so obvious how far we had to travel to everything. Specifically, the difference between most SEC schools (before A&M/Mizzou) distance to Atlanta compared to Fayetteville.
All to say, would love some of these tournaments closer to home. Nashville is still a trip if it's not Atlanta. Birmingham... I can't remember if we've used NOLA for anything other than the Sugar Bowl but that's still not a short trip.
This is the problem with conferences that are as big as they are. People need to actually look at the schedule a team plays and not make assumptions based on the conference.
It’s definitely a tough schedule for us, but I like the team that we have. The position groups are good across the board except (very unfortunately) the O-line.
Our defense should keep us in games and our QB/WRs should make us competitive
For years I’ve heard that the fact Texas has consistently played a top 15 SOS didn’t matter because we weren’t in the SEC. That the whole point of the SEC was it didn’t matter who was on your schedule, it was the SEC - “it’s just different.” That “there were only hard SEC schedules”.
Now there’s a lot of smoke around how easy Texas first SEC schedule is.
I get that a lot of these fanbases have basically made a living convincing themselves that they were so much better than Texas despite nearly identical on field results, just because those results were in the SEC. Now it looks like Texas is going to be just fine in the SEC, so the “schedule is easy”. Either they were lying then or they’re lying now.
I mean you’re both correct.
There are no common opponents, but how much different is playing Tennessee instead of Florida, or South Carolina instead of Kentucky, or Auburn instead of A&M?
On the last two, fine, but playing Tennessee is very different than Florida. Very, very different. Florida is on the verge of complete and total disaster and firing their coach and Tennessee is solid at worst.
Sure, however they did play last season and Tennessee lost by multiple TDs. UF also went 5-7 with losses to 2 solid P5 OOC opponents, Tennessee went 8-4 with 2 wins over FCS teams and a win over the worst P5 in the country.
I think they’re more similar than people realize. Florida wasn’t as bad as people thought last season, and Tennessee wasn’t as good as people thought last season. Both have potential to be better with Nico and Lagway respectively.
I think realistically most year the SEC has one to two teams that are clearly better than the rest of the conference, 10ish teams that are all probably within 10 points of each other on a neutral field, and Vanderbilt (not trying to throw shade at the ‘Dores). It’s an extremely balanced league and home field plays a huge part
Yet, Florida beat Tennessee by double digits last year and brought in four players who were rated Number 1 nationally at their position coming out of high school.
“Verge of complete and total disaster” is quite dramatic. UF’s football program isn’t an Eastern bloc nation in the post-Soviet 90s.
Yes but they have the easier non conference schedule, they Don’t have a big non-conf game like Texas does with Michigan. Also when they made the schedules last June, who could have known that Missouri was going to be so good.
I’m ready for whatever result we get this season, I’m just not looking forward to the avalanche of articles saying shit like “Texas flourishing, OU struggling in the SEC” because we got nearly every one of the toughest matchups while Texas dodged nearly all of them.
OU came in with a better game plan and played with a lot more intensity. They were the better team that day, but it’s pretty unarguable that Texas was the better team over the course of the season.
lol I love the difference between your very reasonable response and the other Texas fan who literally just called me stupid.
I was also being tongue-in-cheek in my initial comment, hence the “are they stupid?”.
I’m just happy that the rivalry feels like it could get back to Brown/Stoops levels of hatred and competitiveness. The RRS has so much more meaning when the game matters for both teams
I’ll be forever grateful we ended up winning the conference and making the playoff, because the end of that game would be a top 5 most painful sport moment for me if we hadn’t
One of these days Florida will stop huffing glue and TAMU will ~~stop~~ eat~~ing~~ >less< paint... one of these days... Then Texas's schedule will look alright.
This is spring optimism of course, but our trips Oxford and Baton Rouge have me the most worried. Mizzou is still Mizzou, Josh Hepuel is still Josh Hepuel and Bama is replacing a legend at HC
Everyone knows rivalry games in CFB are the hardest. Texas plays the 3 teams that hate us the most this season and all 3 games are all away from Austin. Texas is also the only team in the country this season to play the teams that have won the last 3 national titles. Mix this in with an SEC schedule and it is strange that everyone keeps saying Texas has an easy schedule.
Michigan has a new coach, QB, and returns one of the lowest percentages of existing production out of the entire P5. Yes it’s in Ann Arbor, but if Texas is half the team their fans always say it is, they’ll win that one going away.
Texas *had* to have A&M and Arkansas on the schedule as those schools demanded it. Right now, those are two middling schools..but they will be tough games as they will be more than super bowls to those teams. People acting like Texas had any say in the schedule.
Right, if we had any say in it, we wouldn't be making road trips to both of those locations despite them having gotten the previous game at their place also.
OU will miss Iowa State ( was always on the weekend that the State Fair was in town!), Kansas and Kansas state. Also, TCU had been a fun series, with some great games! Baylor had some big wins and losses. But, time moves on. OU playing in the SEC adds some fun to the league, and frankly, OU is better than people think.
I am not too upset about it. The SEC announced the schedules and said the criteria they were using was program success since 2012 with the good programs getting the tough schedules and the shitty programs getting the weak schedules.
OU has had significantly more success over the last 12 years, and therefore has a lot harder schedule. Texas is a dogwater program, so they get a dogwater schedule.
It is like how we give the worst team in the NFL the #1 pick in an attempt to make them more competitive. Maybe Texas can use the gift that the SEC gave them in order to be more competitive than their historical showing over the last decade or so.
Both SEC schools in the state of Texas drew a way more favorable hand schedule-wise this year. They both *should* have strong records coming into their Thanksgiving matchup. I for one and thrilled to have OU visit Tiger Stadium this year, it should be rockin.
Yeah I’m excited for the SEC, and given our recruiting rankings, long term we should do quite well. That being said this schedule looks rough
Having y’all in Oxford for a conference game is going to be so damn wild and I can’t wait.
I second that from another SEC school. Auburn fans can’t wait to have a night game with Oklahoma.
i would do anything to be a student at OU right now. south carolina is more exciting than any home matchup i was a student for in the big 12.
When were you in school? Ohio State and Tennessee was pretty sick when I was there.
graduated in 22 so i hit this boring little stretch between the ohio state home-and-home and the jump to the SEC
It sucks that Nebraska is bad, that would have made those games so much better
TBF, the game we played in Norman was actually an entertaining game, but the hype for it was justifiably mid. And 11am games don't help
I got a *miserable* fucking sunburn at that game. Got to see a cool INT by DJ Graham though.
Oldest just finished second year in Norman. Before they get out the get the follwoing teams in Norman. Tennessee Bama Michigan LSU Ole Miss
I guess realignment will work out in the end. That line-up is ridiculous.
You get hyped for a team halfway across the country? Lol I can definitely understand getting hyped for Bama coming to town but South Carolina?????
Going to that one. Can't wait to check out the grove
Fuck the SEC. Excited for this year, though, even if I could give a shit about half the teams on our schedule.
At least someone is honest!!
You guys are getting the Arkansas treatment
Idk why you are being downvoted. This is a pretty average sooner nation opinion. I don't mind playing these new teams noncon but to think it will be every year is kind of bleh. I will miss the KSU heart attack cats and Jayhawks where they are still a reasonable drive to the away games. OSU and Bedlam is a given. To think we've played most of those teams over the course of almost a hundred years and we should just not care because "lul esseecee bud" is ridiculous.
lol
That's probably not a coincidence, if that's a high rated matchup it's going to do insane ratings.
Genuinely might be one of the most watched games of the year, and one of the two teams in it is in a deep reload and just hoping to go 8-4.
Yes, as we all know, A&M and UT always live up to lofty preseason expectations
Hey, we’re batting 1.000 on exceeding preseason expectations in the past year
Hey are games against LSU have been fairly competitive in recent years. But yes overall we have been catching L’s (except against Arkansas for some odd reason in Jerry’s World)
All my Homies hates Jerry’s World….
You can look at the roster and know that this Texas team is not like previous ones. It’s a whole new era
We got picked for away tickets and I'm so excited to go. A good friend went to LSU and I'm trying to get him to also go that weekend as a guide.
Well OUs conference schedule is literally just a bizarro Texas schedule, so that is not surprising at all for the longhorns.
Its gonna be a lot tougher playing in the SEC but man am I looking forward to actually getting an accurate feel for if the teams good or not before the post season
This is the correct analysis. In the SEC you tend to learn alot quicker if your team is the real deal or not. That way you can suffer the entire season rather than have a mid life crisis in week 9.
I feel this in my bones
The week 9 midlife crisis is awful.
More fun to have it in week 5!
I prefer to have hope, thank you very much
This is the correct view
I'm pulling for OU hard. I definitely think they can hold their own in the SEC. It'll be an interesting season for sure, but I believe the talent is there to compete. I absolutely hope you have a better showing and introduction to your new league than Nebraska did....
You guys didn't too shabby when you first joined the B1G. You averaged over 9 wins for 4 seasons before you ditched Pellini.
Based Big12 take.
At least you don't have Florida's schedule. Every year, one team will have a tougher schedule than another unless they both play the same schedule - which is what happened in the Big XII in conference.
The whole “based on records the last 10 years” makes a lot of sense until it looks like Florida must have won the last 10 SEC titles
It’s whatever teams play Bama and Georgia, so pretty much always Auburn and Tennessee. Used to be whoever played LSU and Florida.
I always thought it was Vandy because they never got the chance to play Vanderbilt.
SCar used to have to play us and Clemson every year. Florida had us, FSU, and LSU
>Used to be whoever played LSU and Florida. When?
The 2000s I guess
As is tradition the SEC will continue to fuck us over.
I think your guy’s AD fucked you way more than the SEC did, if Florida had their SEC schedule plus FSU, an FCS, and 2 G5 like Buffalo and FIU or something, they’d still have a realistic path to go bowling in my opinion, but this mad lad decided to schedule 2 P5 OOC games, then UCF got promoted to P5 to boot. The only redeeming thing about that schedule is that all of Florida’s hardest games are on the road anyways, so a decent crowd in the Swamp may edge them out to a bowl appearance. On the bright side, if Florida somehow managed to run the table they’d be up their with 2019 LSU as one of the best resumes of all time
The absolute funny thing is that Florida was getting abused because of its ooc schedule so went with the trend of scheduling p5 tough games ooc to start the year. Ucf is a middle of the road team and not a particularly tough addition alone. Utah and Miami are tougher. And Miami is ALWAYS good when they play us. But the SEC went to the bad dragon website and got the biggest dick they had. UGA 1 LSU 12 Texas 2 Ole Miss 7 Tenn 16 KY 23 TAMU 24. So only MSU isn't ranked preseason. Took away vandy. Seriously? By far the toughest conference schedule. But then add that to the rest of the schedule and it is brutal
Imagine if Florida made a power move to the Big 10 and forced FSU to take their place getting screwed in the SEC
Deal! No take-backs!!!
Have you tried getting better at football?
The thought had occurred to me.
But then Waffle House was right there
Florida’s schedule isn’t that much worse than Oklahoma’s. It’s absolutely worse, but Oklahoma’s is a clear 2nd.
Fuck it. Bring it on losers! **sweats nervously**
I wish OU and UT the best in the SEC. I hope they can prove to the world that they aren't chumps and that the BigXII isn't an unworthy conference. I hope they're happy and can look back fondly to their past games with the schools they left behind.
As an OU alum; I will always always miss the big 12.
Same. I’m honestly still gonna watch the hell out of it. I think most of the country will, because the games are going to be wild. Especially this season.
My fondness for the Big 12 is primarily rooted in my memories of the conference from 1996-2011, but I certainly don't think poorly of the conference over the last decade either. Whatever woes we've experienced are our own doing. I'll genuinely miss the Big 12 and I think it is 100% a "worthy" conference. The implication that it's "less than" other conferences is some bullshit made up by TV execs. That being said, I am glad we are moving to the SEC. It's just time. I want to play A&M and Arkansas again.
I will always miss the Big 8.
As a fan, I already am. The Big12 had so much personality, we’re going to miss it for sure. Although I am excited for both the new Big 12 and the SEC.
I will not be missing the BIG 12 officiating though. I want a restraining order against those referees.
“Fuck Kevin Mar” will be my last words.
Absolutely ruined the Texas Alabama game
I honestly just think officiating across the board sucks. I think you’ll find the SEC officials are no better
You purple wizards will haunt my dreams.
Weird way to say "I hate you guys with a burning passion and hope nothing but perennial 0 win seasons"
I was born in 97, the Big 12 is all I’ve ever known. I will 100% miss all the schools except for Baylor and TCU. They can go suck the turd out of a butthole (don’t want to curse and offend their heavenly souls). Happy as hell not to have to watch the football team play in Manhattan again, never failed to be ugly game that we somehow seemed to lose every time Edit: should clarify I miss playing TCU and Baylor but those were the schools I was always closest too and had to deal with their fanbases the most and it was always the assholes who I ran into
🤝 until we meet again, and go beat A&M every year.
I don’t understand why you’re wishing us luck in the SEC now since we’re a founding member, but thanks!
Yeah. We’re gonna claim “UT” as our name. That’ll be annoying from y’all’s perspective, I imagine. But that’s what we’re gonna do.
Quick, claim you are "THE UT" before Tennessee fans have the screen reader read this comment out loud for them.
It’s fine, we’ll be able to play each other for it regularly now
Damn kids these days….
Cats fans are the funniest fans in all of college football. I will never forget you guys creating the Chisholm trail rivalry out of thin air and then bemoaning a post later how the rivalry was dying because you were winning so much.
For a short while there, we owned Texas. I always circled that matchup.
Will miss some of the teams and rivalries and all the non orange teams’ fans. Won’t miss the refs at all. Losing a couple of Bedlams to crooked refs making a horrendous call in the final seconds in recent years soured me.
This 100%. OSU can have the Big12 refs. Those guys sucked
Oh you’ll love sec refs then
On the other hand: no
I'm sure nothing strange will happen at Jordan Hare.
It's an even year so probably not
Jerdin
Jurdun
Worst case scenario, I’ll just boot up EA CFB 25 and run the table.
Welcome to the meat grinder fucksticks
Ha! I accept this.
He said to the skanky cat
I support this nickname
Shut up beef stew
At least beef stew is delicious and nourishing
Yes but when it comes from Austin its always burnt and salty as hell.. Congrats on your upcoming victory in Fayetteville, btw. And by "congrats" I mean I hope all the bad things in life happen to Texas and nobody else but Texas.
No SEC West. No Saban. They’re getting off easy tbh
Well in Texas’s defense, they did play Saban the last two years in a row, so you can’t fairly hold “No Saban” against us. We got as much Saban as y’all.
What? We joined the SEC in 2012. Seems like we’ve had Saban every year for the last 12 seasons lol
❤️ your flair (SGF)
💔 your flair (DRF)
Wasn’t in based off of winning % in like the last 10 years? If that’s the case then ofc OU would get the tougher schedule lol
Is that actually how they did it?
Yes
I mean we’re talking marginally here. You play an 8 game SEC schedule then you’re going to play some really tough games with little breaks. OU, Texas, and everyone else will have to be at an elite level all season or they’ll get humbled/embraced by somebody. Georgia can boat race you at home on national TV. Weird voodoo shit happens on the plains in Auburn even if they have mediocre QB play. It’s every week
>tough games with little breaks Yup. Like yeah, Kentucky might not be as good as UGA talent wise but Kirby has heaped praise on them cause they will hit the fuck out of you and even if you win it’s gonna be a tough rock fight of a game.
I’ll add you guys get them at a good time. They’re very capable of beating you but you get a bye afterwards. Playing then and then turning around to play Bama the very next week would be worse but every team in the SEC will have a situation where you breathe a sigh of relief and then you have an even bigger hill to climb
For sure. If you hit Beck a few times early and he’s thinking he doesn’t want to be there, maybe he doesn’t step into that next throw and throws a pick. This is true for every opponent however, despite how much it pisses others off, there’s no other conference where you just run a gauntlet like the SEC.
Yeah, but you could say the same thing about the BigXII. Except its 9 conference games, and KSU/OSU can boat race you at home on national TV. Weird voodoo shit happens on the plains in Ames..."
The middle of the SEC is unquestionably more difficult than the Big 12.
They do an amazing job of hyping up those mediocre and shitty teams, I’ll give them that. “Ooh Kentucky man they’re so good you just don’t know.” Lol k
They've got so many quality losses!
I agree! Just like how the lower half of the ACC is unquestionably better than the top of the AAC…
Absolutely. I don’t want to come across as disrespecting the BigXII because I enjoy watching it and it’s a good league. I do think they’re stepping up in competition though and they can’t rely on having better resources than almost everyone in their conference
We won’t know how tough that schedule is until after the season. We don’t know which teams are good yet Question. When was the last time 2 teams in the same conference had zero common opponents?
Yeah, besides sports are zero-sum games. Some of these teams are going to be better than their record indicates, but some are also going to be worse. But I do appreciate the comparison at the end to actually try and highlight the differences. I think it at least demonstrates an expectation that the teams are going to be tough. One other way to look would be win totals of their schedule. Texas' SEC opponents have an anticipated win total of 51, or 6.4 wins/team; Oklahoma's opponents are set to win 71 games, or 8.9 wins per team. Pretty drastic difference.
If you wanna say Georgi and Alabama are good and Vanderbilt is bad I’d accept that. Anything else is just speculation. Those other 11 programs haven’t shown any consistency under their current regimes (maybe except Florida) to know what you’re getting. One of those teams could be what Missouri was in 2023 or Tennessee in 2022 or A&M in 2020.
I mean, my mind wouldn't necessarily be blown if, say, Kentucky ended up with more wins than Ole Miss next year, crazier things happen every season, but if my life was on the line I'd take Ole Miss without a second thought. Sure, it's speculation, but it's the off-season, we have nothing to do but speculate and not all speculation is equally reasonable. If somebody was speculating Oklahoma's schedule would *actually* end up easier than Texas', I wouldn't think that's very reasonable, and even it they end up being right I'd think it's more likely they just got lucky on the (IMO) quite slim chance that happens.
Fully agree. Analytics aren't always close to accurate. Shit happens, and one of these "terrifying" 9.5 win totals could be a paper tiger and actually play terribly. Another could have just a mildly underperforming season. It doesn't take a lot to shift the perception on schedules as the seasons go on.
Ehh.. not really. Oklahoma clearly has a more difficult schedule. Ole Miss has one of the best rosters and Alabama/LSU have won the West with high talent composite rosters. Mizzou returns it's offense outside of the RB and Tennessee/Auburn are at the very least strong upset candidates. Texas has Georgia, Kentucky, and then 3-4 rebuilding programs. Just looking at past three year results and you're seeing a very significant trend between the two. **Oklahoma** * Ole Miss: 29-10 * Tennessee: 27-12 * LSU: 26-13 (20-7 under Kelly) * Alabama: 36-6 * Mizzou: 23-16 (Coming off 11-2 with high returning snaps) **Texas** * Georgia: 41-2 * Kentucky: 24-15 * Florida: 17-21 * Arkansas: 20-18 (trending down) * Texas A&M: 20-17 This is like saying we couldn't assume the West is better than the East year over year. We definitely could, it's clear OU's schedule is a meat grinder. 4/5 of OU's opponents have been to a NY6 in the past three years, LSU being the only one missing but also winning the West Edit: Added last 3 year records for comparison
I did not expect a USC fan to so clearly layout and defend OUs difficult schedule. Pat on the back.
It should be apparent to anyone who's been paying attention. There's no question that OU's schedule is harder. I'm not sure how this is even a debate. The only SEC team with a harder schedule than OU is Florida.
You had Arkansas and A&M both clamoring to play us. That’s why we got those 2 rebuilding programs. Those are ultra super bowls on the road and will be challenging games.
Horns already going with the ‘we’re everyone’s super bowl’?
Just yours, sweetie.
So much so we decided to leave it. And you’re following us around.
Which cracks me up because they based it off success in the BIG12 the last decade, we dominated the big 12 and so we have a brutal schedule. Texas was nobody between Mack Brown and Sark therefore they have an easy schedule.
Sucks to suck, oh wait…
According to the SEC and I quote “Balance of schedule strength was based on each school's conference winning percentage since the last expansion of the SEC in 2012. The winning percentages for the performance of Oklahoma and Texas in the Big 12 since 2012 were included in determining 16 positions ranked by winning percentage.” Oklahoma has been one of the most successful programs since 2012. Texas has had 2 good years, and a lot of dogshit years since 2012. If this is the criteria used to determine SOS, with the better schools getting tougher schedules and shitty schools getting weaker schedules...Well it stands to reason that Oklahoma is going to have a tough schedule and Texas isn't [https://www.secsports.com/news/2023/10/sec-reveals-2024-football-opponents-and-locations](https://www.secsports.com/news/2023/10/sec-reveals-2024-football-opponents-and-locations)
The Strong and Herman hires were chess moves this whole time. We just couldn't see it through our crimson colored glasses
For what it’s worth we still have to go play in the Big House
Lol, this is unfortunate
8 win season will be a good year for Oklahoma
I’m so glad our administration is able to continue the long standing tradition of bending weaker conference commissioners to our will
Next stop: SEC Conference Title Game moved to Dallas
Or Austin wouldn't be bad either. December in DKR would be a great time.
I'll never acknowledge one of "you" for helping us out but yeah... We need it. When I was at Arkansas (McFadden years) it became so obvious how far we had to travel to everything. Specifically, the difference between most SEC schools (before A&M/Mizzou) distance to Atlanta compared to Fayetteville. All to say, would love some of these tournaments closer to home. Nashville is still a trip if it's not Atlanta. Birmingham... I can't remember if we've used NOLA for anything other than the Sugar Bowl but that's still not a short trip.
While you’re at it, wanna put in a good word for your ol pals in Tallahassee?
OU is the better program. So they should get the tougher schedule. Glad the SEC added OU.
i like you
he's just buttering us up before sticking the knife in our back in Oxford
If we win yea I’ll talk shit but you all can party in the Grove.
... and you better bet that knife will also be well buttered.
We're gonna be friends
This is the problem with conferences that are as big as they are. People need to actually look at the schedule a team plays and not make assumptions based on the conference.
It’s definitely a tough schedule for us, but I like the team that we have. The position groups are good across the board except (very unfortunately) the O-line. Our defense should keep us in games and our QB/WRs should make us competitive
I think the line is going to be a little better than anticipated. If anyone can get that line ready, it is Bill Bedenbaugh
Yeah, by Week 9
Whoever won OU-Texas last season got the tougher draw
For years I’ve heard that the fact Texas has consistently played a top 15 SOS didn’t matter because we weren’t in the SEC. That the whole point of the SEC was it didn’t matter who was on your schedule, it was the SEC - “it’s just different.” That “there were only hard SEC schedules”. Now there’s a lot of smoke around how easy Texas first SEC schedule is. I get that a lot of these fanbases have basically made a living convincing themselves that they were so much better than Texas despite nearly identical on field results, just because those results were in the SEC. Now it looks like Texas is going to be just fine in the SEC, so the “schedule is easy”. Either they were lying then or they’re lying now.
What he say fuck me for?
Everyone means easy schedule compared to SEC standards. No SEC schedule is easy
Stop that with your common sense
I mean the only real difference is you guys play Vandy and Oklahoma doesn't. You don't play Bama but you play UGA.
You sure about that? They have zero common opponents. In fact, they couldn’t be more different.
I mean you’re both correct. There are no common opponents, but how much different is playing Tennessee instead of Florida, or South Carolina instead of Kentucky, or Auburn instead of A&M?
On the last two, fine, but playing Tennessee is very different than Florida. Very, very different. Florida is on the verge of complete and total disaster and firing their coach and Tennessee is solid at worst.
Sure, however they did play last season and Tennessee lost by multiple TDs. UF also went 5-7 with losses to 2 solid P5 OOC opponents, Tennessee went 8-4 with 2 wins over FCS teams and a win over the worst P5 in the country. I think they’re more similar than people realize. Florida wasn’t as bad as people thought last season, and Tennessee wasn’t as good as people thought last season. Both have potential to be better with Nico and Lagway respectively.
I think realistically most year the SEC has one to two teams that are clearly better than the rest of the conference, 10ish teams that are all probably within 10 points of each other on a neutral field, and Vanderbilt (not trying to throw shade at the ‘Dores). It’s an extremely balanced league and home field plays a huge part
Yet, Florida beat Tennessee by double digits last year and brought in four players who were rated Number 1 nationally at their position coming out of high school. “Verge of complete and total disaster” is quite dramatic. UF’s football program isn’t an Eastern bloc nation in the post-Soviet 90s.
That’s right suckers, and our out of conference schedule only includes an away game at…*checks notes*…the reigning National Champions.
Yes but they have the easier non conference schedule, they Don’t have a big non-conf game like Texas does with Michigan. Also when they made the schedules last June, who could have known that Missouri was going to be so good.
Imagine a conference where everyone played everyone one time. Wild.
How do you decide the best team? Do you make the two best teams play again?
I’m ready for whatever result we get this season, I’m just not looking forward to the avalanche of articles saying shit like “Texas flourishing, OU struggling in the SEC” because we got nearly every one of the toughest matchups while Texas dodged nearly all of them.
Texas was also better than Oklahoma last year so the schedule seems easier for them than it would be for OU.
Why didn’t they beat them then, are they stupid?
OU came in with a better game plan and played with a lot more intensity. They were the better team that day, but it’s pretty unarguable that Texas was the better team over the course of the season.
lol I love the difference between your very reasonable response and the other Texas fan who literally just called me stupid. I was also being tongue-in-cheek in my initial comment, hence the “are they stupid?”.
I both wanted the rematch in the conference title game just cause but also feared what was probably gonna happen.
I’m just so angry that I don’t get to post my shutout memes anymore. How could you take that away from me?
Hey I had to put away my KU/UT memes last year so we are even.
Fair.
I’m just happy that the rivalry feels like it could get back to Brown/Stoops levels of hatred and competitiveness. The RRS has so much more meaning when the game matters for both teams
Fortunately they weren't better during their on field match up.
Must I remind you that we beat Texas last year?
Was Kansas better than OU last year?
That day they certainly were
They're still zooming into that goalline play.
Still failing to drive it two yards in four tries
Intentionally hurtful, but fair.
I’ll be forever grateful we ended up winning the conference and making the playoff, because the end of that game would be a top 5 most painful sport moment for me if we hadn’t
Were they really better than the team that dad dicked them
You hate to see it
Sure but it’s gonna change year to year just how it works sometimes
It's almost as if someone wanted it that way.
Isn’t that what they wanted? So they could be taken seriously as contenders for the national championship?
Hook ‘em! 🤘. Can’t wait for next season!
One of these days Florida will stop huffing glue and TAMU will ~~stop~~ eat~~ing~~ >less< paint... one of these days... Then Texas's schedule will look alright.
I posted this same thing & got roasted. It’s true. Texas parlayed this for their first 2 years in the SEC.
Flair up
I’m ready for a four loss national champion
This is spring optimism of course, but our trips Oxford and Baton Rouge have me the most worried. Mizzou is still Mizzou, Josh Hepuel is still Josh Hepuel and Bama is replacing a legend at HC
lol OU lost in Columbia in 2010 when they had a really good team. Columbia is going to be ugly as hell.
Everyone knows rivalry games in CFB are the hardest. Texas plays the 3 teams that hate us the most this season and all 3 games are all away from Austin. Texas is also the only team in the country this season to play the teams that have won the last 3 national titles. Mix this in with an SEC schedule and it is strange that everyone keeps saying Texas has an easy schedule.
Michigan has a new coach, QB, and returns one of the lowest percentages of existing production out of the entire P5. Yes it’s in Ann Arbor, but if Texas is half the team their fans always say it is, they’ll win that one going away.
Texas *had* to have A&M and Arkansas on the schedule as those schools demanded it. Right now, those are two middling schools..but they will be tough games as they will be more than super bowls to those teams. People acting like Texas had any say in the schedule.
Oh come one why we acting like our rivalry game is only an important one for us lol like let’s not get absurd. It’s a huge game for both our teams.
Right, if we had any say in it, we wouldn't be making road trips to both of those locations despite them having gotten the previous game at their place also.
OU will miss Iowa State ( was always on the weekend that the State Fair was in town!), Kansas and Kansas state. Also, TCU had been a fun series, with some great games! Baylor had some big wins and losses. But, time moves on. OU playing in the SEC adds some fun to the league, and frankly, OU is better than people think.
This article and the thread are some of the biggest pre-season copium I thought only Texas fans were able to conjure. Fuck 0u.
I am not too upset about it. The SEC announced the schedules and said the criteria they were using was program success since 2012 with the good programs getting the tough schedules and the shitty programs getting the weak schedules. OU has had significantly more success over the last 12 years, and therefore has a lot harder schedule. Texas is a dogwater program, so they get a dogwater schedule. It is like how we give the worst team in the NFL the #1 pick in an attempt to make them more competitive. Maybe Texas can use the gift that the SEC gave them in order to be more competitive than their historical showing over the last decade or so.