Ad Disclosure
Schedules! We’ve got schedules!
The full 2018 SEC football schedule was announced on Tuesday afternoon.
Here is a team-by-team look at the ’18 slate — or if you prefer week-to-week, we’ve got that too.
This particular article pertains to those schedules that aren’t so tough. That’s not to say any team has an easy schedule. They all involve a full season of SEC games, so make no mistake, they’re tough. But some are tougher than others.
Here are the “Bottom Five” … the absolute weakest SEC slates, comparatively. These are ranked from weakest to strongest, as in No. 1 is the weakest.
1. Kentucky
The Wildcats’ schedule sets up about as nicely as a team could ask. First off, Kentucky draws Texas A&M and Mississippi State out of the SEC West. State, while hot at the moment, will have to travel to Lexington, and who knows what A&M will look like in a year. At least the ‘Cats don’t play Alabama. Kentucky gets Georgia and Vanderbilt, which may currently be the SEC East’s two best teams, at home. The non-conference slate is quite manageable with games against Central Michigan, Murray State, Middle Tennessee and Louisville.
2. Georgia
This one all starts with the non-conference slate. The Bulldogs play Austin Peay, Middle Tennessee, UMass and Georgia Tech — not exactly murderer’s row. The ‘Dawgs must play LSU and Auburn out of the SEC West, with the latter Tigers traveling to Athens. Georgia also happens to get division rival Tennessee at home in addition to its annual neutral site game with Florida. While the two West games are tough, they are spaced out nicely. Georgia gets a bye after the LSU game.
3. Missouri
Tennessee-Martin, Wyoming, Purdue and Memphis — those are Mizzou’s non-conference opponents in 2018. The Tigers get Georgia and Vanderbilt at home in the division but must travel to Florida and South Carolina. The toughest part of this schedule is a trip to Alabama on Oct. 13, just one week after making the visit to Columbia. Mizzou will play Arkansas, its permanent SEC West rival, at home on Nov. 24.
4. Arkansas
The fact that Arkansas plays an SEC West schedule makes it marginally tougher than the SEC East teams listed in the top three spots. But the Hogs are quite fortunate in the fact they play Alabama and LSU at home. They draw Vanderbilt and Missouri out of the SEC East and have non-conference bouts scheduled against Eastern Illinois, Colorado State, North Texas and Tulsa. This schedule is more than manageable.
5. Ole Miss
The Rebels will hopefully be in a more stable situation going into next season. An easier-to-navigate schedule should help. Ole Miss plays Texas Tech, Southern Illinois, Kent State and Louisiana-Monroe outside the SEC. In conference, it has home games against Alabama, Auburn, South Carolina and Mississippi State. Ole Miss also plays Vanderbilt out of the SEC East.
Cody McClure is an SEC Football Writer for Saturday Down South. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he also co-hosts a midday sports radio show for FOX Sports. Cody previously worked for Athlon Sports.
