What once was a rather uninteresting administrative release in college basketball has now become something of great importance and intrigue.
I am talking, of course, about the SEC schedule release.
It was once that the release of the conference schedule wouldn’t mean much, other than to people planning their weekend trips to Gainesville or checking in to which road games might be accommodated with a work schedule. That was the case when the SEC was just behind the other power conferences in overall quality, but it isn’t the case now that the league has established themselves as the big dog in the sport. Additionally, the increase to 16 teams has made for unbalanced schedules that have huge implications when it comes to standings, making the schedule more important than ever.
We already knew which games the Gators would be playing at home and which were coming on the road, but on Thursday the league finally announced the dates for each game which gives us a chance to walk through what the season is going to look like. Here is Florida’s SEC schedule, with one major note–pretty much every game that currently falls on a Tuesday has an option of being rescheduled to a day later–so hold off making any major travel decisions for the time being:
January 3: @ Missouri
January 6: Georgia
January 10: Tennessee
January 13: @ Oklahoma
January 17: @ Vanderbilt
January 20: LSU
January 24: Auburn
January 27: @ South Carolina
January 31: Alabama
February 7: @ Texas A&M
February 10: @ Georgia
February 14: Kentucky
February 17: South Carolina
February 21: @ Ole MIss
February 25: @ Texas
February 28: Arkansas
March 3: Mississippi State
March 7: @ Kentucky
Let’s walk through it.
Heading to Missouri to start the SEC season will be no easy task, but nowadays there are so few easy games in the SEC that you can’t say this is anything out of the ordinary.
Tennessee is expected to be one of the teams contending for an SEC title, so look for January 10th to be a massive game. Obviously the league isn’t won in the beginning of January, but it’s quite possible that Florida and Tennessee could finish the league first and second in some order and this game could have huge implications from a standings scenario, so it will be important to see who will own the tiebreak.
While the SEC is going to be competitive top to bottom, a few of the teams expected to finish near the basement are Oklahoma, LSU, and South Carolina, and the Gators play those three teams in a five game stretch between January 13th and 27th. If the Gators want to win the league, they probably need to go through this stretch (that also includes Vanderbilt and Auburn) at least 4-1.
Florida does get lucky a bit with the break from January 31st to February 7th leading into road games. Sure, back to back road games are always going to be tough, but when you need to play them it is great to have the lengthy rest beforehand. Those two road games off the break will be at Texas A&M and at Georgia.
After only playing Kentucky once last season the Gators are back to playing them home and away, with the league essentially admitting that they heard the outcry from fans and that they adjusted accordingly. The first game will be in Gainesville on February 14th, with the game in Kentucky being the last game of the regular season on March 7th. This means that Denzel Aberdeen’s senior night will be before taking on the Gators–something that will be a unique sight for sure. Since last year’s SEC standings came down to the wire the last game of the season could be extremely important, so this will be one to circle on the calendar.
With the official schedule release the season is really starting to take shape, with college basketball tipping off in just three months.