OPINION: Which SEC Football Schedule Is Tougher For South Carolina: 2023 or 2024?
After the 2023 football season concludes, South Carolina and the rest of the teams in the SEC will prepare for a conference expansion and reformed scheduling model that will leave everyone excited yet uncertain about the future. The only thing that's genuinely certain beyond 2023 is the conference schedules for each SEC team in 2024, which were released back on June 14th.
On South Carolina's end, they'll see four different SEC teams on their schedule that, as of right now, aren't annual opponents, and that group includes schools like Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, and Ole Miss. Add the fact that the games against the Crimson Tide and the Sooners are taking place on the road, and Gamecock fans might immediately think that South Carolina's 2024 SEC schedule is automatically more difficult.
However, the numbers are much closer than one might imagine when looking at the opponents' overall win percentages and conference win percentages from each of the past two seasons and applying these calculations to South Carolina's 2023 and 2024 SEC slates.
South Carolina's Opponents' Overall Win | Conference Win Percentages (Based On 2021 and 2022 Seasons)
2023: 58.2% | 47.1%
2024: 58.9% | 48.6%
In terms of the numbers themselves, the 2024 SEC schedule for South Carolina is more difficult, but if we compare the programs that South Carolina is dropping for at least the 2024 season to the ones their adding, they're facing similar programs, just with different names and logos. Based on recent program success, the Gamecocks are essentially swapping out Tennessee for Ole Miss, Georgia for Alabama, and Florida for Oklahoma. The only team that makes the 2024 schedule more challenging from purely an opponent standpoint is the LSU Tigers. and South Carolina gets to play them in Williams-Brice Stadium.
This could lead to South Carolina having a much smoother transition in the first year of the new SEC scheduling model, at least with how things are currently set up, but another round of meetings in Destin, FL, this next Summer could always change that.
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