Published March 19, 2012 - 9:41am
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As we get into the top 5 schedules for 2012, we see a significant increase in difficulty. Not that the previous nine schedules weren’t difficult, but the top five are likely some of the toughest schedules in college football. We start the “top-tier” with the Florida Gators, coming in with the 2nd toughest schedule in the SEC East and the fifth toughest in the entire conference.
2012 Florida Gators Schedule
- Sep 01 – Bowling Green Falcons
- Sep 08 – at Texas A&M aggies
- Sep 15 – at Tennessee Volunteers
- Sep 22 – Kentucky Wildcats
- Sep 29 – BYE
- Oct 06 – LSU Tigers
- Oct 13 – at Vanderbilt Commodores
- Oct 20 – South Carolina Gamecocks
- Oct 27 – Georgia Bulldogs (Neutral Site)
- Nov 03 – Missouri Tigers
- Nov 10 – Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns
- Nov 17 – Jacksonville State Gamecocks
- Nov 24 – at Florida State Seminoles
The Numbers
- 7 Home Games
- 4 Road Games
- 1 Neutral Site game (vs Georgia at Jacksonville)
- 3 Cupcakes (Bowling Green, Louisiana, Jacksonville State)
- 4 top 25 opponents (#3 LSU, #5 Georgia, #8 FSU, #10 South Carolina) using ESPN’s early top 25 estimate
- 4 top 25 opponents (#1 LSU, #7 South Carolina, #9 Georgia, #17 FSU) using an early SI poll
Rank
- SEC East: 2nd
- SEC: 5th
Notes
Let’s be honest. This is a very tough schedule. Florida has 4 teams in the top ten of the ESPN early preseason poll cited above. LSU, Georgia, Florida State and South Carolina are four very tough games in 2012. Lucky for Florida, 2 of them are at home (LSU & South Carolina), Georgia is in Jacksonville and Florida State is in Tallahassee.
The Gator schedule adds in three very tough road games to these 4 top ten opponents. The Gators travel to College Station for the inaugural TAMU game as a member of the SEC. They also travel to Knoxville to face the Vols and to Nashville to face the Commodores. These will all be games that the Gators have to play well in to win.
The Gators also welcome the other SEC-newcomer to Gainesville when the Missouri Tigers play in the Swamp on November 3rd.
It will be difficult for the Gators to win the east considering the rebuilding nature of the 2012 season combined with this very tough schedule.
Stay tuned as we break down each team’s schedule counting up to the toughest schedule. If you want a sneak peak at the full list, you’ll have to add SDS to your “Circles” on Google Plus here then view the recent posts.
