Wednesday morning, the conference that has won the last seven BCS titles released their league schedule for next year, and there are some very interesting items to note. The cross-divisional opponents are the ones that have caused the most controversy, and after looking at how it affects the SEC East, you'll understand why.
In addition to playing all of their divisional foes (Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Vanderbilt), South Carolina hosts Texas A&M and plays Arkansas, which is fairly tough. Georgia must travel to Arkansas while they host Auburn, two games of unknown difficulty until we see what Bret Bielema and Gus Malzahn can build by year two. Florida? Florida hosts LSU and must go to Tuscaloosa to play the Tide. One of those schedules is not quite like the other.
A few other scheduling notes:
* For the opening Thursday night of the season, South Carolina will be hosting Texas A&M. What channel will that be broadcast on? The brand new SEC Network. Trick tricky.
* LSU visits Texas A&M on Thanksgiving night. It's not quite Longhorns/Aggies, but we'll take it.
* Again, Florida has to play Alabama, LSU, Georgia and South Carolina next year. Yikes.
* Texas A&M returns to Alabama on October 18, while Alabama goes to LSU on November 8.
* In addition to a manageable conference schedule, Georgia's non-league slate in 2014 consists of home games against Clemson, Troy, Charleston Southern and Georgia Tech. They'll have to replace Aaron Murray, but you can start the 2014 preseason hype for the Dawgs now.
* I think my favorite overall weekend is rather early, on October 4. The match ups are Alabama at Ole Miss, LSU at Auburn, Florida at Tennessee, Vanderbilt at Georgia, South Carolina at Kentucky and Texas A&M at Mississippi State. That looks like a lot of road favorites trying to survive.
Check out all of the 2014 schedules here.
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