Tuesday’s release of the 2019 SEC schedule will certainly create tons of speculation among fans, but one of the most interesting things about the slate is a major change to how it’s constructed.

The conference will move to a 14-week season with each team having two open dates, which is likely a welcome change for most coaches and players. In the competitive and physically demanding SEC, having an extra week to rest players and prepare for big games is invaluable.

But beyond that, the extra open date creates a much easier rescheduling opportunity for teams that must postpone or cancel games due to weather. With recent years seeing a rash of rescheduling due to hurricanes and other storms, this was likely a major factor in the schedule change.

Another point of interest is seeing which teams face the most SEC opponents coming off a bye. While this almost certainly doesn’t reflect any bias from the league office and is merely a product of trying to compile a workable schedule for 14 teams, it’s another method of determining a schedule’s difficulty.

Georgia leads the way with five league opponents fresh off a bye — every other East team besides Kentucky and Vanderbilt, plus Auburn. After that, Alabama, LSU and Tennessee are tied at three apiece.

Ole Miss and Vanderbilt are the only teams that won’t face an SEC opponent following a bye week.