The 2024-25 SEC opponent list was announced and for the first time in years–it has a completely different look.
With Texas and Oklahoma being added to the league the schedule has been upended (more on that later) and for the first time the Gators will see the Longhorns and Sooners in a conference game.
Right now the matchups were announced but not dates, so look for that to come in a few months.
Here are Florida’s matchups for the 2024-25 SEC season:
Home Games
Georgia
Ole Miss
Missouri
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Texas A&M
Vanderbilt
Road Games
Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
Georgia
Kentucky
LSU
Mississippi State
South Carolina
Tennessee
As you can see–Florida will get the two new SEC opponents at home this year so they won’t have to experience any new road environments quite yet.
While rosters change more than ever in college basketball, it appears that Florida’s schedule is tilted towards being easier at home and more difficult on the road–at least if you look at who was successful last year, what teams are bringing back, and who has currently been landed in the transfer portal. Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt are currently projected to be near the bottom of the league and having those teams at home should make for games the Gators should be expected to win.
Unfortunately, things look much more difficult on the road. Alabama will be a team picked to be in the mix for a Final Four, and Arkansas will have all kinds of buzz with John Calipari now at the helm. Auburn has reloaded with talented scoring options, and Tennessee has been recruiting as well as anyone in the league.
If this ends up being the case, Florida could have a tough time winning quadrant-1 games since they won’t have as many opportunities at home, and the quadrant-1 opportunities on the road will be extremely difficult. This is also the nature of going to such a large league–when you have 16 teams it’s going to be hard for all of them to be playing well year to year and there is almost certainly going to be a number of poor games on the schedule this year and while it’s too early to say who those teams are for sure there is a chance the Gators will get a number of them at home leaving a lot of challenging games for the road.
The expanded SEC also means the watering down of some rivalries and in this year one of the casualties of the expanded league this year is the home and home Florida and Kentucky have been playing for over a decade. These were games that Florida could always count on as a resume opportunity as well as a chance for a major audience, and they won’t be thrilled at only getting the chance to play the Wildcats once–particularly in a year where they could be vulnerable in year one of the Mark Pope era as he has to build the roster from scratch.
Florida will now look to round out their non-conference schedule to complete the outlook of their 2024-25 season.