We knew it was coming, but 2024 SEC football schedule still shocks
We have known for more than two years that powerhouse football programs Texas and Oklahoma would join the Southeastern Conference. We’ve known for eight months the process was going to fast-forward to begin with the 2024 season.
We knew it was going to make already brutal conference football schedules even more challenging. We knew it make for a league where, truly, only the strongest will survive.
Now the first conference football schedule – the one to be played next fall – has been released, and reality hit with the force of a sleekly muscled 245-pound linebacker with sprinter’s speed, which probably should be the league’s trademark because there are so many of them.
Despite having known for two years what was coming, the announcement was still staggering. In this new SEC, coaches will earn their tens of millions, and unless they are very good at what they do, they will earn it for only a short period of time. Actually, they can be very good at what they do and still not win enough games to remain employed.
Welcome to the SEC, Jeff Lebby at Mississippi State. Your first four conference games are these: Florida, Texas, Georgia and Texas A&M. Good luck with that.
No snickering over there, Ole Miss. During one October-November stretch, the Rebels will play LSU, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia and Florida. Survivors next will play the Egg Bowl on Thanksgiving night. Yes, I know, the schedule says they will play on Saturday, Nov. 30, but that’s subject to change and my sources say it will almost surely will. Egg Bowl tailgating will still include turkey and dressing.
All around the league, filthy rich coaches must be shaking their heads and asking, “Did I really sign on for this?”
Consider the case of Florida coach Billy Napier, who will be coaching to keep his job that pays him $51.8 million over seven years. The Gators, who finished 5-7 this past season, will conclude the 2024 season with these five games: at Georgia, at Texas, LSU at home, Ole Miss at home and then at Florida State. Might as well play in the NFC South. Come to think of it, the NFC South might be easier.
Seriously, Florida might want to rethink the idea of opening a schedule with Miami and closing it with Florida State, while playing an eight-game conference schedule in the new SEC in between. Put it this way: Unless Florida drastically improves, that Florida State game on Nov. 30 will be Napier’s last as a Gator. Florida will pay him millions not to coach, and the Gators then will pay millions to another coach to try and survive the SEC minefield.
Even Kirby Smart, whose Georgia teams have won 41 of their last 43 games, might glance ahead at the 2024 schedule and shudder. His Bulldogs will play road games at Alabama, at Texas and at Ole Miss. The home games aren’t much easier.
In the new SEC, there will no longer be eastern and western divisions. All 16 teams will be lumped together. There will be an SEC Championship Game, which will match the two teams with the best conference records.
Everybody else will get a much needed rest.
Old-timers, such as this one, can remember when Mississippi State annually ended its season with Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Ole Miss. We sports scribes called it Murderer’s Row. Now, in this first expanded SEC season, the Bulldogs don’t play Alabama, Auburn or LSU. And yet, the Bulldogs’ schedule is more difficult than ever. It won’t get easier any time soon. Bama, Auburn and LSU are still out there and will return.
Listen: The new SEC with Oklahoma and Texas includes four of the top 10 the current AP Top 25 poll. It includes five of the top 11, six of the top 12 and seven — seven — of the top 13.
Early projections were that the additions of Texas and Oklahoma would escalate SEC revenue to a point that by 2028 each school will receive $100 million in SEC revenue each year, up from nearly $50 million currently.
That may be. But they are for damn sure going earn it.
Rick Cleveland, a native of Hattiesburg and resident of Jackson, has been Mississippi Today’s sports columnist since 2016.