Texas vs. Mississippi State: The Longhorns’ Favorable SEC Debut

SEC newcomers Texas and Oklahoma face very different challenges in their first conference season

Bevo enters the stadium as the Texas Longhorns take on ULM at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. / Mikala Compton/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State football gets the unfortunate honor of welcoming No. 1 Texas into the SEC with the Longhorns’ first-ever conference game.

That’s a pretty good first SEC game for Texas and should have a better outcome than Oklahoma did in its SEC debut against No. 5 Tennessee. But it’s hard not to see who the two SEC newcomers face in their first conference game and not think the SEC was playing favorites when making this season’s schedule.

Anyone with an older or younger sibling has asked their parents if they had a favorite child and, of course, their parents said no (or told each kid separately they’re the favorite).

Oklahoma is the kid asking the question and the SEC is the parent saying no. But actions do speak louder than words.

There are thousands of factors to consider when making a schedule, so it’s plausible the conference wasn’t playing favorites. But just look at the remaining schedules for both teams.

Of course, Texas and Oklahoma face each other, but the only other ranked teams the Longhorns will face is No. 2 Georgia and No. 24 Texas A&M. They also get to face most of the bottom half of the SEC standings (Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky and Mississippi State).

Happy Maroon Friday🤩#HailState🐶 pic.twitter.com/Hcpcu1PB9V

— Mississippi State Athletics (@HailState) September 27, 2024

The Sooners have to travel to Auburn this week and then play South Carolina, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 11 Missouri, No. 4 Alabama and No. 14 LSU. Throw in the games against Tennessee and Texas, and Oklahoma will have faced the SEC’s six best teams.

Again, there are a lot of factors and variables that go into making a schedule. But the disparity in the difficulty of the two newcomers’ SEC schedule is hard to ignore.

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