OPINION: How South Carolina's 2023 SEC Schedule Stacks Up With The Rest Of League

The 2023 conference slate for South Carolina's Football program seems daunting at first glance, but might not be as tough as originally thought.

Over the past week or so, a lot of attention has been paid to the 2024 SEC Football schedule for each of the sixteen teams that'll be in the league by that point. For South Carolina, multiple annual matchups won't be taking place for the first time in over three decades, but the SEC front office did a good job overall in creating a balance with the Gamecocks' strength of schedule.

This led me to think back to South Carolina's conference slate for the 2023 season, one that includes some heavy hitters like Georgia and Tennessee, along with a challenging road game against Texas A&M, but how does the schedule compare to the rest of the SEC?

To answer this, I compiled an objective ranking where I utilized overall win percentages and conference win percentages from the last two seasons for each SEC team, and for tiebreakers, I took each team's conference road schedule into account. After crunching the numbers, this was the final ranking I came up with:

Objective 2023 SEC Schedule Difficulty Rankings

1) Auburn

2) Texas A&M

3) Kentucky

4) Vanderbilt

5) Ole Miss

6) Mississippi State

7) Florida

8) Alabama

9) Tennessee

10) Missouri

11) South Carolina

12) Arkansas

13) LSU

14) Georgia

When ranking all the SEC teams based on opponent overall win and conference win percentages from the previous two seasons, I believe South Carolina has the fourth easiest schedule in the SEC. Once again, the road slate against teams like Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas A&M will be a daunting challenge for the Gamecocks. However, South Carolina drawing Mississippi State as their "last" rotating SEC West opponent and residing in the SEC East still gives them a somewhat favorable schedule overall.

Other Opinion Articles You Might Also Like:

• OPINION: Shane Beamer, South Carolina Hosting Ole Miss & Missouri In 2024 Is Huge
• OPINION: How South Carolina's 2024 SEC Schedule Stacks Up Against Rest Of The League
• OPINION: South Carolina's A "Have-Not" When It Comes To Protected Matchups

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