Solving the puzzle of the SEC's scheduling issue for 2024 is daunting
247sports.com
The SEC has
approved eight-game scheduling for at least the 2024 season while the conference figures out the logistics of a nine-game slate down the road. With the arrival of Texas and Oklahoma, there will be no divisions next season and the conference hasn't yet decided if it's going with the 1-7 model or a designated combination of opponents, so projecting every team's eight-game SEC schedule next season is a subjective guess.
We're trying to keep every team's schedule competitive as possible ā as the SEC's league office plans to do ā but not all slates will be created equally. Several programs have non-conference agreements with Power Five opponents next fall and getting out of those contracts would prove costly.
The eight-game format will continue the scheduling of primary and secondary rivalries for the 2024 season, which likely preserves such games as Auburn-Georgia and Alabama-Tennessee ā and the renewal of the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry, which hasn't been played since 2011.
ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE
Projected 2024 SEC opponents: LSU, Texas A&M, at Oklahoma, Mississippi State, at Tennessee, at Georgia, Auburn, at Arkansas
Alabama will be able to handle a brutal schedule in 2024, but the likelihood of the Crimson Tide playing Texas for a third-consecutive season seems small. We'll toss a road trip to Oklahoma on there for maximum national exposure. Rivalry games with LSU and Auburn should stay, along with the Third Saturday in October (Tennessee). South Carolina owes the Crimson Tide a trip to Tuscaloosa, so that might happen next year.