The SEC hasn’t made the national title game in the last three seasons. That hasn’t stopped the commissioner, coaches, or its fans from beating their chest about it still being the toughest conference in America. Who’s to say whether or not that’s true, but ESPN certainly seems to think so.
The FPI rankings that were released on Thursday highlighted that, once again, all 16 teams rank inside the top 20 nationally in schedule difficulty. Here’s a look at the rankings as well as a comparison to our own from the site.
The Rankings
1. Arkansas
2. Oklahoma
3. Texas
4. Kentucky
5. Ole Miss
6. Mississippi State
7. Florida
9. Texas A&M
10. South Carolina
11. LSU
12. Missouri
13. Auburn
14. Tennessee
15. Alabama
18. Vanderbilt
20. Georgia
Takeaways
Argue all you want about whether or not the SEC deserves to have (insert number here) amount of teams in the FPI rankings themselves. But, the strength of schedule rankings don’t feel very far fetched.
The SEC has consistently found a majority of their teams ranked in the top 25 for strength of schedule for years, and that was before they added a ninth conference game. It was also before Commissioner Greg Sankey issued a mandate that every team in the league had to play a tenth game against a Power Four opponent in their non-conference schedule. The Big Ten isn’t doing that, and not every team in the ACC is even playing nine conference games.
The biggest gripe, if there is one, is that Texas somehow isn’t number one. Granted they can’t play themselves, but they play eight teams that are ranked in the preseason top 25. That’s not just the top 25 from FPI either, it’s nearly a consensus among every preseason magazine that’s hit newsstands this summer.
What a brutal slate for a team that’s in a must-win season for Steve Sarkisian.
