SEC strength of schedule rankings 2025: Georgia catches favorable draw, Oklahoma staring down rough road

1 Vanderbilt hits the road to face four top 15 teams, including national title contenders Texas and Alabama. Diego Pavia always makes games interesting, but the Commodores might just buckle under the stress of the SEC’s most difficult slate. I’m not sure what Vanderbilt was thinking scheduling its three easiest games in the first month of the season ( Charleston Southern , Georgia State , Utah State ). The back half of the schedule is brutal, with no breathing room or lower-tier opponent providing a break from the likes of Alabama, LSU, Texas and Tennessee . 2 Jeff Lebby was 0-8 in the SEC last season, and the schedule in Year 2 is probably more difficult. The Bulldogs face four CFP teams from a year ago — the highest total in the country — and must travel to Florida , Texas A&M and Missouri . MSU is more talented this fall but that schedule does them no favors. The five-week stretch from mid-October through November doesn’t include a bye, and features road trips to Florida, Arkansas and Missouri, while hosting SEC contenders Texas and Georgia. Week 1 isn’t a gimme either, with the Bulldogs traveling to in-state rival Southern Miss . They return home to face CFP participant Arizona State in Week 2. 3 Sam Pittman is on the hot seat, and reaching bowl eligibility should probably be enough to save his job (again) against this schedule. Finding wins is difficult. The easiest game on the schedule is Arkansas State , but that carries significance because the Razorbacks have never played the Red Wolves after previous administrations refused to schedule them. What happens if the Hogs, dare we say, lose in Little Rock? Also on the nonconference schedule is last year’s national runner-up Notre Dame and a trip to Memphis . In the SEC, the Hogs travel to Ole Miss , Tennessee, LSU and rival Texas. Can you spot six wins? 4 Believe it or not, the schedule is manageable heading into November, but that’s when the road gets bumpy. The Sooners travel to Tennessee and Alabama before finishing the year against Missouri and LSU. That is a brutal final month. Week 2 features Michigan in Norman, as OU alum Sherrone Moore brings freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood to town. The Sooners play only one game on the road in the first five week — at Temple — and get Auburn and Kent State before traveling to Dallas to face rival Texas on Oct. 11. There are eight legitimately difficult matchups and three are on the road — South Carolina , Tennessee and Alabama. 5 Florida may have played the toughest schedule in the country in 2024, and though it eases up a bit thanks to the slide of Florida State , it’s still no cake walk. Back-to-back September road trips to LSU and Miami may define the season. Billy Napier needs to get Florida back to that nine- or 10-win mark, even against this schedule, to remain relevant. No doubt he’ll show whether he can do that by midseason. The three-game stretch with LSU, Miami and Texas (after a bye week) will likely determine whether Napier is still the coach in 2026. Trips to Texas A&M and Ole Miss are also on the docket before closing the season at home against Tennessee and Florida State. 6 Texas A&M’s schedule includes three straight road games — Arkansas, LSU and Missouri — and the Aggies finish the season at Texas in their first trip to Austin in 15 years. The Week 3 visit to Notre Dame is daunting, but the Aggies get a bye week before jumping into the SEC schedule in late September against Auburn and Mississippi State . Two road games against CFP teams from last season? Rough. 7 Brian Kelly’s seven-year streak of 10-win seasons ended in 2024, but he’s built a team capable of starting a new run. The season opener at Clemson might as well be a CFP quarterfinal. LSU has lost five straight season openers, and you could argue this is a tougher challenge than any of those. The first month of the season also includes Florida and Ole Miss, with a trip to Oxford on the docket. Meanwhile trips to Alabama and Oklahoma await later in the season. The visit to Vanderbilt (Oct. 18) after hosting South Carolina is sneaky, too. 8 Texas doesn’t ease into the schedule like many and opens the season on the road against reigning national champion Ohio State . What follows is a trio of pushovers before opening the SEC schedule on the road against Florida (Oct. 4). The Longhorns are favored in every game in the SEC other than a trip to Georgia on Nov. 15, but that doesn’t mean the schedule is easy. Still, the slate is evenly spaced out, with only one instance of back-to-back road games ( Kentucky , Mississippi State). The toughest stretch might be the first three weeks of the SEC schedule, with trips to Florida and Kentucky sandwiching the Red River Rivalry in Dallas. 9 Kentucky knows all too well how mediocre quarterbacks can get you beat — and beat badly — in the SEC. Mark Stoops is betting on veteran transfer Zach Calzada to fix the Wildcats’ woes under center. Boy, he better show something that we haven’t quite seen for the Wildcats to get back on the right track. Trips to South Carolina, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Auburn and Louisville are on the schedule. At home, games against Ole Miss, Texas and Tennessee are certainly gonna sell tickets, but how much will a home-field advantage help the Wildcats in games they might already be tabbed as double-digit underdogs? 10 Believe it or not, the pressure is on Kalen DeBoer to deliver a 10-win season and playoff appearance. Anything less will lead fans to walk into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s difficult to get a read on Florida State, but opening the season against a team of unknown talent is going to come with a learning curve. Road trips to Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina await later in the year. The good news is LSU, Wisconsin , Tennessee and Oklahoma are coming to Tuscaloosa. The schedule sets up for a bounce-back year and CFP appearance, but there are pitfalls, particularly with Vanderbilt — which upset then-No. 1 Alabama last season — the week after the road trip to Georgia and subsequent games against Missouri (road), Tennessee and South Carolina (road) without a bye week. 11 Auburn’s schedule is never easy with rivals Alabama and Georgia permanently in the rotation, but both come to Auburn this season, and with an abundance of talent returning at receiver and a former blue-chip prospect at quarterback in Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold , this is the year for Hugh Freeze to challenge for 10 wins. The Tigers open the season on a Friday at Baylor . Back-to-back road rips to Oklahoma and Texas close September. Only two road games remain on the docket in October and November (at Arkansas and Vanderbilt). As always, the season will defined by Georgia (Oct. 11) and Alabama (Nov. 29). If Freeze is ever going to win at Auburn, it’s against this schedule. 12 Ole Miss might be the biggest wildcard in the CFP race. The schedule is navigable, even if an immense amount of talent must be replaced from last season’s three-loss team. The most difficult stretch begins in late October with back-to-back road trips to Georgia and Oklahoma before hosting South Carolina on Nov. 1. The Rebels host LSU (Sept. 27) and Florida (Nov. 15). 13 You gotta love the spacing on the schedule if you’re Shane Beamer. The only back-to-back road games are in November (Ole Miss and Texas A&M) and those opponents are separated by an open date. If the Gamecocks get past Mizzou on Sept. 20, quarterback LaNorris Sellers will be on early Heisman Trophy lists with a 5-0 record heading into a showdown with LSU in Death Valley. The toughest stretch includes LSU, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M in a six-week span. That run could break even the best teams in the country. 14 Any schedule with Alabama, Tennessee and Texas is difficult, but the setup is about as good as it can get for Georgia. The Bulldogs travel only to Tennessee, Auburn and Mississippi State, and do not have back-to-back road games. The Bulldogs also get a week to rest and prepare for Alabama (Sept. 27) after traveling to Tennessee (Sept. 13). Hosting Alabama and Texas is huge. Otherwise, the Bulldogs get to feast on the bottom half of the SEC (Kentucky and Mississippi State) and play payout games against Marshall , Austin Peay and Charlotte . The Georgia Tech game will also be played inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium instead of Bobby Dodd Stadium, and it’s sure to be filled mostly with Bulldog fans. 15 Might Tennessee be a playoff team once again? If the Volunteers take care of business at home and split road games against Alabama (Oct. 18) and Florida (Nov. 22), they will have a clear runway. The season opener against Syracuse is severely underrated on the national scene. Trips to Mississippi State and Kentucky are laughers, and getting Arkansas and Vanderbilt at home should be easy wins, too. Circle the Week 3 game against Georgia (Sept. 13) in Neyland Stadium. We’ll know if the Vols are a legit contender after that evening. 16 Missouri should challenge for 10 wins with this schedule. The Tigers don’t play a road game until Oct. 18 at Auburn and face at least three SEC teams likely to finish in the bottom half of the standings. The nonconference slate is highlighted by a Sept. 6 matchup with Kansas and includes less compelling games against Central Arkansas, Louisiana and UMass. However, the relatively manageable schedule does feature two sets of back-to-back road games-both within a one-month span. The Tigers travel to Auburn and Vanderbilt, then close the season at Oklahoma and Arkansas.