Which SEC teams have had the easiest schedules since 2012? The toughest?

When talk of SEC football is bandied about, quite often strength of schedule makes its way into the conversation. Which team seems to get the favored schedule is a question that seems to flourish among the more heated debates.

But which teams actually do have the strongest schedules?

In order to arrive at such conclusion, a look at the SEC record of each team’s conference opponent must be examined. For example, Alabama defeated Ole Miss and Kentucky in 2016. The Rebels and Wildcats finished 2-5 and 4-3 in other SEC games, respectively. So those two SEC opponents went 6-8 for a winning percentage of .429.

That might indicate an easy schedule for the Tide, but in fact, Alabama tied for toughest SEC schedule last season with Arkansas, LSU and Tennessee. All four opponents’ records were an identical 30-26.

But not far behind was a group of five teams whose opponents’ records were all 29-27. That list: Auburn, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Texas A&M.

Three schools tied for the easiest schedule last season, with identical 25-31 opponents’ records. They were Georgia, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. As relatively easy as those slates were, they didn’t make the list of the easiest since 2012.

Looking only within SEC competition, here are the teams ranked by strength of schedule, toughest to easiest, since 2012.

SEC STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE SINCE 2012

TOUGHEST SEASONS
And then there are the individual seasons in which certain teams have had a tougher time of it as far as their SEC schedule goes. Here are the five most difficult conference schedules that SEC teams have faced since 2012, including ties.

EASIEST SEASONS
And finally, we have the easiest schedules. That’s not to say playing any kind of SEC schedule includes cupcakes, but there are nevertheless degrees of difficulty to consider. Here are the easiest single-season SEC schedules during the last five years.