Matchups are the 2024 matchups with home and away flipped.

Previously scheduled non conference games are in italics and are courtesy of FBSchedules.com. They have Georgia-Florida as scheduled as well.

I made it a priority to have Alabama-Georgia in November as opposed to early September. By contrast, I moved Texas-Georgia to September. Assuming Georgia-Florida the first week of November, they can only have one big game that month. Tennessee won't want to play Georgia any week near Alabama so UGa-Tennessee will be pretty early as well. I counted seven SEC teams playing OOC Week 4 (Sept. 20) so UT-UGa was a good matchup that week.

The big matchups on this schedule IMO:
Sept. 20: Texas at Georgia
Oct. 4: Georgia at Tennessee
Oct. 11: Oklahoma vs. Texas at Dallas
Oct. 18: Tennessee at Alabama
Nov. 1: Georgia vs. Florida at Jacksonville, LSU at Alabama
Nov. 15: Alabama at Georgia
Nov. 29: The usual rivalry games

Georgia and Alabama already scheduled non conference games on Nov. 22 but that did open up Nov. 15 for both. LSU also has a cupcake that day. Texas and Tennessee look like the best SEC teams open for conference games but they're not playing each other in 2025.

One thing we saw on Oct. 19 this year is when two big games are the same day it really helps the prime time game. 10 million fans at 3:30pm for Alabama-Tennessee led to 13 million fans for Georgia-Texas. The issue is you lose a potential prime time game. I think Georgia-Florida and LSU-Alabama have a decent chance to be a good double on Nov. 1. UF's schedule of course will be tough but I intentionally back loaded it, putting Tennessee and Texas in November.

I gave UGa a bye before UF as per tradition but if I were them, I'd rather the byes be before Texas and Alabama.

Now we've seen the full SEC regular season complete and I have the SEC Championship game rematch scheduled for September 20th! Of course I'm the guy who always complains about the biggest SEC games being in September like Georgia-Alabama this year. Maybe we should save Texas-Georgia for November instead of Alabama-Georgia. In addition to being the SEC Championship Game rematch, Georgia-Texas was the most watched SEC game this year, even more than Georgia-Alabama (although I wonder if three weeks later contributed to that). This year Texas did play Georgia the week after Oklahoma but do you think they'll want to do that again?

Assuming UGa plays UF on Nov. 1 and they're locked into cupcake and GT Nov. 22/29, they have room for one mega game Nov. 15 (probably wouldn't want to play one Nov. 8) so it'll either be Texas, Alabama, or Tennessee. Maybe it should be Texas instead of Alabama? But I've always wanted a later Alabama-Georgia for years and this is the chance to do it.

One week from today...


What's your favorite SEC team's ideal schedule?

Times are proposed, dates are official.
Aug. 30: LSU at Clemson (ACC TV), Alabama at Florida State (ACC TV), Texas at Ohio State (Big 10 TV), South Carolina vs. Virginia Tech at Atlanta (Aug. 31), Tennessee vs. Syracuse at Unknown
Sept. 6: Kansas at Missouri or South Florida at Florida, noon, Mississippi at Kentucky, 3:30pm, Michigan at Oklahoma, SNF
Sept. 13: Wisconsin at Alabama, noon (Yes!), Florida at LSU, 3:30pm, Georgia at Tennessee, SNF, Texas A&M at Notre Dame (ND TV)
Sept. 20: Florida at Miami (ACC TV)
Sept. 27: Notre Dame at Arkansas, noon, LSU at Mississippi, 3:30pm, Alabama at Georgia, SNF
Oct. 4: Texas at Florida, Vanderbilt at Alabama
Oct. 11: Oklahoma vs. Texas at Dallas, Alabama at Missouri, Florida at Texas A&M
Oct. 18: Mississippi at Georgia, 3:30pm, Tennessee at Alabama, SNF
Oct. 25: Alabama at South Carolina, Texas A&M at LSU
Nov. 1: Florida vs. Georgia at Jacksonville, 3:30pm
Nov. 8: LSU at Alabama, Might have to be 3:30pm as the rest of their schedule sucks
Nov. 15: Florida at Mississippi, noon, Oklahoma at Alabama, 3:30pm, Texas at Georgia, SNF
Nov. 22: Tennessee at Florida, Arkansas at Texas
Nov. 29: Alabama at Auburn, 3:30pm, Texas A&M at Texas, SNF - No games listed for Black Friday yet

The SEC made Texas-Georgia the showcase November game.

Paul Finnebaum even said the Nov. 15 times would be what I said! That is going to be the day of the season for the SEC with not only Texas-Georgia but Florida-Mississippi and Oklahoma-Alabama. Those two late November losses practically cost both Mississippi and Alabama the Playoff this year.

Georgia has both Tennessee and Alabama in September! Georgia has both Florida and Texas in November while Tennessee and Alabama play each other in mid October so Georgia practically had to play both of them earlier. Alabama-Georgia and Oregon-Penn State are the same day. Not good planning between the SEC and Big Ten.