The Florida Gators have arguably the toughest college football schedule of all time for 2024.
Not a great time to be on the hot seat for head coach Billy Napier. And apologies to Napier and Gators fans, but most pundits don’t foresee them surviving to make the debut of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
The team that should be the most worried are the SEC newcomers Oklahoma Sooners: No. 16 in the Sportings News’ composite rankings of all the preseason polls (so far), and No. 8 in ESPN’s Football Power Index rankings.
Head coach Brent Venables has his work cut out for him after the Sporting News unveiled their rankings of the SEC’s toughest to easiest schedules. With a composite score of ranked opponents and home vs. on the road, the Sooners are only 13 points behind the scary Gators schedule (104 total score vs. 117), and they’re the only two SEC schools to have a score over 100.
To put that in perspective, the No. 8 Missouri Tigers, with the easiest SEC schedule, have a total score of 26!
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Oklahoma’s gauntlet season includes vs. No. 3 Texas, at No. 6 Ole Miss, vs. No. 9 Alabama, at No. 10 LSU, at No. 11 Missouri, vs. No. 13 Tennessee. (Compare that to Florida’s: vs. No. 1 Georgia, at No. 3 Texas, vs. No. 6 Ole Miss, at No. 7 Florida State, vs. No. 10 LSU, at No. 13 Tennessee, vs. No. 25 Texas A&M.)
That’s a lot to put on the shoulders of new starting quarterback Jackson Arnold, but the Sooners exceeded expectations last season by going 10-2. Unfortunately, they still would have finished just out of the 12-team CFP by getting bumped out of the final spot because of Conference USA champion Liberty.
Glass half-full, Arnold has elite talent as a former five-star recruit. With Venables’ track record and blue chippers on both sides of the ball, Oklahoma seems like they’ll be up for the challenge of an inaugural SEC gauntlet.