When the SEC released the two additional opponents for every team as part of the 10-game, conference-only schedule, Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said the Razorbacks now had the most challenging schedule in the history of college football. While “history” is debatable, ESPN’s Football Power Index does rank UA’s 2020 slate of the 6 other SEC West teams plus Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Missouri as the toughest schedule in the nation this fall.

The FPI has ranked strength of schedule for all the FBS teams playing this fall. The 14 SEC teams nearly occupied the top 14 toughest schedules. Nationally, Florida checked in at No. 16 behind Baylor and Kansas.

Here’s the complete FPI rankings for the toughest schedules in the SEC:

  1. Arkansas
  2. Mississippi State
  3. South Carolina
  4. Ole Miss
  5. Tennessee
  6. Missouri
  7. Auburn
  8. Kentucky
  9. Texas A&M
  10. Alabama
  11. Vanderbilt
  12. LSU
  13. Georgia
  14. Florida

ESPN describes the FPI as “a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season.”

“FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 20,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule. Ratings and projections update daily.”