Some SEC football teams have the easiest paths to Atlanta

In the new world of SEC football, getting 10 wins in the regular season is almost as important as making the SEC Championship Game. Winning SEC championships will continue to matter (and hopefully always will), but in reality, making the 12-team CFB playoffs will define success or failure going forward.

The SEC’s eight-game conference schedule is not balanced in terms of opponent strength. It wouldn’t be nine games either. Some teams will have an easier path to Atlanta than others.

For most SEC teams, with the exception of Vanderbilt, non-conference (OOC) schedules are filled with easy or guaranteed-win games. From that perspective, getting 10 wins into the CFB playoffs is better served by four OOC wins and a 6-2 SEC record. But not every SEC title contender has four, OOC-locked wins.

The Alabama Crimson Tide is scheduled to travel to Madison, WI in week three. Georgia opens with Clemson and LSU opens with USC. Both games take place at neutral sites. In week two, the Texas Longhorns travel to Ann Arbor and the Tennessee Vols play at North Carolina State at a neutral site. The SEC might well be 5-0 in these games, but in particular, a USC or NCSU win wouldn’t be a shock.

For this article measuring which SEC teams have the easiest paths to Atlanta, only eight teams are considered SEC championship contenders. They are Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Assessed subjectively, Texas and Missouri present the easiest paths. The third easiest is Ole Miss. The most difficult group of paths (not ranked by degree of difficulty) are Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, LSU, and Tennessee.

The following five teams are listed in alphabetical order.

There will be surprises and even major upsets. Florida and Oklahoma are particularly difficult to predict. One thing is certain. 2024 will be an exciting season for SEC Football.

The complete 2024 SEC football schedule is available here.