Published February 19, 2012 - 11:43am
NEW: Discuss this topic in the Google+ community for SEC fans.
How does a team in the SEC West who has to travel to Tuscaloosa and Baton Rouge have the 11th easiest schedule in the SEC? Well, by having 4 cupcakes on the schedule and drawing Tennessee and Kentucky from the SEC East of course. The Mississippi State Bulldogs are the first SEC West team on our list as we work up from the easiest schedules to the toughest. While it’s easy when compared to SEC West schedules, we still put it ahead of three SEC East schedules – mostly due to having to play both Alabama and LSU on the road. Let’s break down the Mississippi State 2012 schedule:
2012 Mississippi State Bulldogs Schedule
- Sep 01 – Jackson State Tigers
- Sep 08 – Auburn Tigers
- Sep 15 – at Troy Trojans
- Sep 22 – South Alabama Jaguars
- Sep 29 – BYE
- Oct 06 – at Kentucky Wildcats
- Oct 13 – Tennessee Volunteers
- Oct 20 – Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders
- Oct 27 – at Alabama Crimson Tide
- Nov 03 – Texas A&M Aggies
- Nov 10 – at LSU Tigers
- Nov 17 – Arkansas Razorbacks
- Nov 24 – at Ole Miss Rebels
The Numbers
- 7 Home Games with likely 2 cupcake games to be filled in
- 5 Road Games
- 4 Cupcakes (Jackson State, Troy, South Alabama, Middle Tennessee State)
- 3 top 25 opponents (#2 Alabama, #3 LSU, #11 Arkansas) using ESPN’s early top 25 estimate
- 4 top 25 opponents (#1 LSU, #4 Arkansas, #5 Alabama, #23 Auburn) using an early SI poll
Rank
- SEC West: 7th
- SEC: 11th
Notes
When you’re playing in the SEC West and there are three top ten teams in your division, the words schedule and easy should not appear in the same sentence. With that said, Miss State has a very favorable schedule compared to SEC West norms.
2012 will be a tale of two halves for the Bulldogs. If Mullen can get his team playing some good football, they could easily start 4-0 (if they can get past Auburn), maybe even 7-0 if they can beat Kentucky and Tennessee. Once they get into the last week of October, however, the schedule gets very difficult. A run of at Alabama, Texas A&M, at LSU, Arkansas then at Ole Miss (rivalry game) could register anywhere from 3-5 losses.
Despite bringing some degree of energy to the program in Starkville, Mullen has yet to beat an SEC West team not named Ole Miss in the three seasons as the head coach. 2012 will be just as difficult. Mullen needs a win over one of the SEC West powers – Auburn on September 8th might be the best bet.
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.
