“Easy schedule” is an oxymoron in the SEC, right?

Whether a team plays in the East or West Division, every SEC team plays at least a respectable schedule.

Starting in 2016, each team is required to face a power-conference opponent (or Notre Dame/BYU/Army) to account for the fact that the league intends to keep an eight-game SEC schedule. That will mitigate some of the gap between the most difficult and easiest SEC schedule each season.

But the gap can get pretty large.

Tennessee must play Alabama in a cross-division game every year. Ole Miss gets to play Vanderbilt. That’s a huge difference.

Speaking of Vandy, the SEC East winner gets to collect victories against the Commodores and Kentucky Wildcats, while the West winner must scrap past Mississippi State and Arkansas.

Bye weeks are more or less advantageous. Non-conference schedules are more or less aggressive. The order of games matters, as does whether you get the best teams at home or on the road.

Ranking the schedules is very difficult before the season, but rest assured whatever the reality is, matters.

Teams get relatively little control over the schedule from year to year, with the exception of those four non-conference games. (In the SEC, several programs have an annual non-conference rival, so that shrinks even further.)

Fans love seeing great matchups. Personally, there’s only so many Auburn-Samford games that I can endure. I’d much rather see Auburn-Louisville. So, for this story, we’re saluting some of the SEC teams who are aggressive and fearless with their non-conference scheduling.

ALABAMA

What’s impressive: Coach Nick Saban never has been shy about scheduling a difficult power-conference opponent early in the season. Since he arrived at Alabama, the Tide has played Florida State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Michigan, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. Saban also was a proponent of the requirement to face a power-conference foe in the non-conference schedule. Oh, and there’s the whole SEC West thing. It’s kind of a big deal. Alabama has done pretty well in those games as well.

Biggest non-traditional game looming: vs. Southern Cal (Sept. 3, 2016 in Arlington)

GEORGIA

What’s impressive: Despite facing Georgia Tech on an annual basis, the Bulldogs still tackle an additional power-conference team nearly every year. And we’re not talking Indiana, either. UGA played Clemson last year and is scheduled to face Notre Dame four times in the future.

Biggest non-traditional game looming: vs. North Carolina (Sept. 3, 2016 in Atlanta)

SOUTH CAROLINA

What’s impressive: Whether it’s because of Steve Spurrier’s legendary competitiveness or because of … OK, it’s probably the competitiveness. The Gamecocks play a heck of a schedule. This year, for example, Spurrier turned down Florida State because the non-conference schedule already includes North Carolina, Clemson and UCF. South Carolina also has played a very good East Carolina team a few times, so even the team’s “lesser” non-conference opponents often are worthy of middling bowl games.

Biggest non-traditional game looming: vs. North Carolina (Sept. 3, 2015 in Charlotte)

TEXAS A&M

What’s impressive: SEC teams rarely venture into Pac-12 territory for non-conference games. Even after the Texas A&M-Oregon series got canceled, the team still plans to play Arizona State, UCLA and Colorado in a combined five games — two on the road and one at a neutral site. SEC vs. Pac-12 is an intriguing setup that I wish we saw more often, so kudos to the Aggies for that. And despite playing a bizarre game of publicity chicken with Texas about whether to resume that series, A&M hasn’t been shy about facing other in-state schools.

Biggest non-traditional game looming: vs. Arizona State (Sept. 5, 2015 in Houston)