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Have game, will travel.
That motto applies to all SEC teams, but some of them obviously won’t have to travel as much as some others, which could end up being a huge edge as the season grinds on. Let’s take a look at each SEC team’s schedule and see which school is the conference’s truest road warrior.
Alabama: The Crimson Tide has only four true road games this season. And its one neutral-site game in 2015 — Saturday’s season opener against Wisconsin on Saturday night — is its second-longest road trip of the season, 607 miles from Tuscaloosa. Alabama’s longest jaunt in 2015 takes it to Texas A&M, which is 629 miles from home.
Arkansas: The Razorbacks have six true home games this season, not counting their Sept. 12 game against Toledo, their lone 2015 contest in Little Rock, which is 190 miles from campus. The Hogs’ longest road trip this year takes them to Oxford (Ole Miss) and Baton Rouge (LSU) the first two weeks of November, which are collectively 1,445 miles from Fayetteville.
Auburn: The Tigers’ slate is similar to Arkansas’ with Auburn making consecutive trips to Lexington and Fayetteville for games against Kentucky and Arkansas, respectively during the latter half of October. Those trips will force Auburn to travel a total of 1,147 miles, or roughly 300 miles fewer than the Razorbacks have to commute this year.
Florida: Like it will be for Auburn, October will be a busy month for new coach Jim McElwain and his Gators, who will have to take back-to-back trips to Columbia (Missouri) and Baton Rouge next month for a grand total of 1,603 miles. Seven games in Gainesville — along with Florida’s annual meeting with Georgia in Jacksonville — will soften that blow.
Georgia: In terms of opponents — and distance — the Bulldogs might have the SEC’s easiest 2015 schedule. Every one of their road trips is exactly one game; and the longest distance they have to travel is just 308 miles, when they take on Vanderbilt in Nashville. Georgia needs to go just 72 miles for one its four road games, its annual regular-season finale at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, which is where they very well could — and probably should — end up for this year’s SEC Championship Game following its “soft” road slate.
Kentucky: While LSU’s schedule is arguably the conference’s toughest this year, the Wildcats’ slate looks like the SEC’s easiest in terms of traveling. Kentucky has four straight home games between Sept. 19 and Oct. 15. And none of their road trips in 2015 is longer than 492 miles, which is how far they have to go to face Mississippi State in Starkville on Oct. 24.
LSU: Like Georgia, the Tigers don’t have two consecutive road games on their schedule, but they do have go 1,436 miles for their Sept. 26 matchup at Syracuse, which is longer than Auburn’s two trips combined. When you add the Syracuse jaunt to LSU’s other road trips this year — Starkville (Mississippi State), Columbia (Missouri), Tuscaloosa (Alabama) and Oxford (Ole Miss), the Tigers are slated to travel 4,032 miles this season — the second-most of any SEC team. Les Miles should be a “Mad Hatter” indeed about this schedule.
Mississippi: If you thought LSU’s road slate was tough, give the Rebels’ schedule a gander. Of Ole Miss’ five road trips this year, every one of them is at least 802 miles, with the capper being the 1,099 miles separating Oxford and Gainesville for their Oct. 3 matchup against Florida. The Rebels — who have to travel a conference-high 4,444 miles this season — will earn the most frequent-flier points in the SEC in 2015.
Mississippi State: The Bulldogs end September and begin October with back-to-back trips to Auburn and College Station totaling 809 miles, but that is their most difficult stretch of travel. They open the season Saturday night at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, which is just 181 miles away, or roughly a three-hour drive from Starkville.
Missouri: The Tigers cap October with a two-game trip to Athens (Georgia) and Nashville (Vanderbilt), which will take them a collective 1,167 miles. But that’s the hardest part of their road slate. Their longest non-conference road trip takes them 297 miles for a game at Arkansas State in Jonesboro, and their lone neutral-site game this season is against BYU in nearby Kansas City on Nov. 14.
South Carolina: The Gamecocks have already taken their shortest road trip this season, traveling 93 miles to Charlotte, where they beat North Carolina in their season opener. Their true road games in 2015 are trips to Athens, Columbia (Missouri), College Station and Knoxville for a total of 2,336 miles.
Tennessee: The 2015 slate starts off well for the Vols, who play five of their first six games in Tennessee. But that home cooking comes with a price at Tennessee’s four road trips in 2015 totaling 1,643 miles, with the Volunteers’ Sept. 26 trek to Gainesville accounting for 608 of them.
Texas A&M: The Aggies’ schedule this season is even more favorable than Tennessee’s as their first six games are in Texas — including Saturday’s season opener against Arizona State in Houston as well as their Sept. 26 matchup against Arkansas in Arlington. Of Texas A&M’s three road games in 2015, two of them are consecutive — in Knoxville and Baton Rouge for a collective 1,127-mile trip to end November — and the Aggies also have an Oct. 24 jaunt to Oxford — for a season-long 1,334 miles — on their slate.
Vanderbilt: The Commodores get a break when they play at Middle Tennessee State on Oct. 3 in Murfreesboro, for their shortest road trip of the season at a mere 34 miles from their Nashville campus. But another one of their non-conference games in 2015 is in Houston — 779 miles away — to face the Cougars. Their other roads trips consist of stops in Oxford, Columbia, S.C. and Gainesville for a total of 1,591 miles.
Note: distancebetweencities.net was used to compute miles between SEC campuses and neutral-site locations.
Stan Chrapowicki is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers SEC football, Alabama and Auburn.
