SEC strength of schedule rankings 2024: Florida faces brutal slate, Texas has clear path to playoff

The SEC's newcomers face vastly different outlooks in their first seasons as league members

By Will Backus Jul 30, 2024 at 9:33 am ET• 7 min read

There's no such thing as a "light" SEC football schedule. Even if a program loads its nonconference slate with proverbial cupcakes, once league play starts, things are always a grind week in and week out. 

That's true for every school, no matter preseason expectations, and it's not getting any easier. In fact, that aforementioned grind looks more like a downright slog with Texas and Oklahoma joining the fold, further increasing the profile of one of the country's premier conferences. 

Those two combined for seven of the last nine Big 12 championships and represented their former conference in the College Football Playoff four times in that span. Those are big fish adding their weight to a big pond.