SEC football schedule 2021 – what are the five things you need to know? What are the five things that matter?
SEC Football Schedule 2021: 5 Things You Need To Know
SEC Schedules, Analysis, Best/Worst Scenarios
East Florida | Georgia | Kentucky | Missouri
South Carolina | Tennessee | Vanderbilt
West Alabama | Arkansas | Auburn | LSU
Mississippi State | Ole Miss | Texas A&M
The 2021 SEC football schedule was released. There’s anger, excitement, and a whole lot of looking ahead to what should be a full schedule again this fall as if 2020 never happened.
Here are five things about the schedule that matter including who misses the big teams from the other division, the non-conference analysis, the one big difference in this year’s slate, the winners and losers, and starting out with …
5. Who gets the rested teams?
There was a time not all that long ago when SEC teams took an Alabamacation.
You have the Crimson Tide on the schedule? Okay … just make sure you get a week off to rest up and get ready first. In the end that time off usually didn’t matter much, but that’s changed now.
Every SEC team has one off week and one light scrimmage against an FCS or some other cream-filled pastry of a paycheck game, but this year, that easy date isn’t always coming before a key SEC date. That matters, too – sometimes it’s nice to get a few easy games to gear up.
SEC East
Florida
The open date comes before: Georgia, Oct. 23
The FCS scrimmage: Samford before at Missouri, Nov. 20
Georgia
The open date comes before: Florida, Oct. 30
The FCS scrimmage: Charleston Southern before at Georgia Tech, Nov. 27
Kentucky
The open date comes before: at Mississippi State, Oct. 30
The FCS scrimmage: Chattanooga before at South Carolina, Sept. 25
Missouri
The open date comes before: at Vanderbilt, Oct. 30
The FCS scrimmage: SE Missouri State before at Boston College, Sept. 25
South Carolina
The open date comes before: Florida, Nov. 6
The FCS scrimmage: Eastern Illinois before at East Carolina, Sept. 11
Tennessee
The open date comes before: at Kentucky, Nov. 6
The FCS scrimmage: Tennessee Tech before at Florida, Sept. 25
Vanderbilt
The open date comes before: Kentucky, Nov. 13
The FCS scrimmage: East Tennessee State before at Colorado State, Sept. 11
SEC West
Alabama
The open date comes before: LSU, Nov. 6
The FCS scrimmage: Mercer before at Florida, Sept. 18
Arkansas
The open date comes before: Mississippi State, Nov. 6
The FCS scrimmage: Arkansas-Pine Bluff before – and here’s one of the SEC’s most interesting schedule quirks – the Oct. 30 week off
Auburn
The open date comes before: Ole Miss, Oct. 30
The FCS scrimmage: Alabama State before at Penn State, Sept. 18
LSU
The open date comes before: at Alabama, Nov. 6
The FCS scrimmage: McNeese State before Central Michigan, Sept. 18
Mississippi State
The open date comes before: Alabama, Oct. 16
The FCS scrimmage: Tennessee State before Ole Miss, Nov. 27
Ole Miss
The open date comes before: at Alabama, Oct. 2
The FCS scrimmage: Austin Peay before Tulane, Sept. 18
Texas A&M
The open date comes before: Auburn, Nov. 6
The FCS scrimmage: Prairie View before at LSU, Nov. 27
NEXT: Who misses the big boys from the other division?
4. Who misses the big boys from the other division?
It’s the most important aspect of the SEC schedule – who do you play from that other division?
Every team plays an eight game conference slate, every team gets an FCS free space, and every team gets three other non-conference games. Every team plays six division games and one team from the other division, and every team has one permanent buddy from a rivalry of some sort that gets to keep on going.
But as you’ll see, not all schedules are created remotely equal.
SEC East
Florida
Annual West rival game: at LSU, Oct. 16
The other West game: Alabama, Sept. 18
So that means no … Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
Georgia
Annual West rival game: at Auburn, Oct. 9
The other West game: Arkansas, Oct. 2
So that means no … Alabama, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
Kentucky
Annual West rival game: at Mississippi State, Oct. 30
The other West game: LSU, Oct. 9
So that means no … Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
Missouri
Annual West rival game: at Arkansas, Nov. 27
The other West game: Texas A&M, Oct. 16
So that means no … Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss
South Carolina
Annual West rival game: at Texas A&M, Oct. 23
The other West game: Auburn, Nov. 29
So that means no … Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss
Tennessee
Annual West rival game: at Alabama, Oct. 23
The other West game: Ole Miss, Oct. 16
So that means no … Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi State, Texas A&M
Vanderbilt
Annual West rival game: at Ole Miss, Nov. 20
The other West game: Mississippi State, Oct. 23
So that means no … Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Texas A&M
SEC West
Alabama
Annual East rival game: Tennessee, Oct. 23
The other East game: at Florida, Sept. 18
So that means no … Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Vanderbilt
Arkansas
Annual East rival game: Missouri, Nov. 27
The other East game: at Georgia, Oct. 2
So that means no … Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Auburn
Annual East rival game: Georgia, Oct. 9
The other East game: at South Carolina, Nov. 20
So that means no … Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
LSU
Annual East rival game: Florida, Oct. 16
The other East game: at Kentucky, Oct. 9
So that means no … Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Mississippi State
Annual East rival game: Kentucky, Oct. 30
The other East game: at Vanderbilt, Oct. 23
So that means no … Florida, Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee
Ole Miss
Annual East rival game: Vanderbilt, Nov. 20
The other East game: at Tennessee, Oct. 16
So that means no … Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina
Texas A&M
Annual East rival game: South Carolina, Oct. 23
The other East game: at Missouri, Oct. 16
So that means no … Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
NEXT: The non-conference games
3. The non-conference games
Oh yeah … non-conference games.
The SEC is going to do those again after taking a year off for a whole slew of reasons – more on that in Part 2 of this whole thing.
Everyone likes to rip on the SEC playing an FCS team and a slew of other layups all while not really travelling to too many other houses unless it’s a neutral site game.
But give the conference credit – just about everyone has one fantastic date against a Power Five big name. This matters for a league full of teams that can’t afford to drop even one game in a league full of landmines, or risk being out of the College Football Playoff hunt.
So how do all of the SEC non-conference slates look?
SEC East
Florida
Is Florida State going to be any better? The rivalry game is in Gainesville, and so are the in-state games against Florida Atlantic and USF – even if the date with the Bulls is on the road. Samford is the FCS free space date.
Georgia
Not one word about the late November game against Charleston Southern. Why? The Bulldogs are facing defending Conference USA champion UAB, they finish up in Atlanta against Georgia Tech, and … oh yeah. The season opens against Clemson in Charlotte.
Kentucky
There’s nothing to get excited over – ULM, Chattanooga, New Mexico State – until the regular season-ender at Louisville.
Missouri
There’s a fun, dangerous date at Boston College at the end of September, but that’s it. Central Michigan, SE Missouri, and North Texas all have to come to Columbia.
South Carolina
You can forgive South Carolina for Eastern Illinois, at East Carolina – watch out for that, by the way – and Troy with the Clemson rivalry back on.
Tennessee
The layups against Bowling Green and South Alabama are forgiven a wee bit considering the Vols are also hosting a dangerous Pitt team.
Vanderbilt
The Commodores are stretching themselves a bit with a dangerous date at Colorado State and home game against Stanford in between – in non-conference play – scrimmages against ETSU and UConn.
SEC West
Alabama
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Alabama playing Southern Miss, New Mexico State, Mercer makes the world a lesser place, but there season-opener against Miami sort of makes up for it.
Arkansas
The Southwest Conference days are back on with the Hogs facing Texas and Rice. Georgia Southern is a dangerous letdown game, but Arkansas-Pine Bluff is a nice break.
Auburn
Rip on the dates against Akron, Georgia State and Alabama State all you want. The Tigers are doing something most of the rest of the SEC isn’t and going on the road for a dangerous non-rivalry date: at Penn State.
LSU
Starting the season out at UCLA will be a blast. Go ahead and enjoy doing something else with your day with the other three against McNeese State, Central Michigan and ULM.
Mississippi State
Going up the road to Memphis is interesting, and hosting NC State should be a fight. Watch out for the opener against a Louisiana Tech team that might be the best in Conference USA. Tennessee State is the layup.
Ole Miss
Opening up against Louisville in Atlanta is a big deal for both teams. Tulane isn’t a two-foot putt, and let’s get the head coaching chatter going when Liberty comes to town. Austin Peay is the FCS game.
Texas A&M
Kent State, New Mexico, and Prairie View A&M are the gimmes, but the trip to Colorado is at least a restaurant quality road game – even if it’s technically a neutral site date in Denver.
NEXT: The one big different thing with the 2021 SEC season is …
2. Oh yeah, those non-conference games
It was as if 2020 was just last year.
No one left the house, there was this election thing, and everything sort of sucked. However, there was this one interesting twist in the college football world, with conferences mostly blowing off other conferences and wanting to get their own games in.
They didn’t want to deal with the COVID protocols and concerns of other conferences and teams, but mostly, they didn’t want to pay anyone to come play when there wasn’t going to be any revenue with few fans in the stands.
And that sort of made things weird for the SEC.
The idea of an SEC-only schedule sounded nice in theory, but it 1) probably cost the conference a second team in the College Football Playoff, since 2) a whole lot of SEC teams looked mediocre because 3) they all played each other and didn’t have a fat load of 55-3 wins over Central Tech State to make anyone think otherwise.
In the end, the SEC had a strong bowl season, yet another dominant national champion, and everyone moved on. However, with nine SEC games instead of the normal eight, there was a whole lot of ugly.
Those non-conference dates are warm-ups, chances to get everything right, and most importantly, wins.
Quick, how many SEC teams finished with a winning record? Five. Alabama, Texas A&M, Florida, Georgia, and Auburn.
Does 4-5 Ole Miss have a winning record if it played its 2021 non-conference slate of Louisville, Austin Peay, Tulane and Liberty? Of course.
Could 2020 LSU have used September dates against McNeese State and Central Michigan like it has this year? Ya think?
Would Gus Malzahn still be the Auburn head coach if he started out the season at least 3-1 after playing Akron, Alabama State, at Penn State – which, the Tigers might have won last year – and Georgia State?
Yeah, only five SEC teams finished 2020 with a winning record. Only six finished with a winning conference record in 2019, however, eight finished with a winning record overall, Missouri went 6-6 and didn’t go bowling, and Mississippi State would’ve had a winning run if it didn’t lose its bowl game.
Welcome back, SEC non-conference games. You just mean more.
NEXT: SEC schedule winners and losers
1. 2021 SEC schedule winners and losers
Oh yes, without even playing a game yet, here are the SEC schedule winners and losers.
Winner: Texas A&M … and by a mile.
The Aggies play Colorado in Denver and get Arkansas in Arlington, Texas. That means they technically play just three true road games, and Missouri, Ole Miss, and possibly LSU are all winnable. Alabama and Auburn are home games, there’s no Florida, no Georgia, and no excuse to not have another massive season.
Loser: Florida
In the glass is half full way of thinking, at least the date with Alabama is at home. The only other team in the East to face the Tide is Tennessee. So that must mean the Gators’ other game against the West is relatively easy to make up for it, right? Nope – is the annual game against LSU, and it’s on the road.
Outside of the Georgia game there isn’t any thing else that’s too bad, however, the date with Samford on November 13th in the only home game between the October 16th game at LSU until the November 27th regular season finale against Florida State.
Winner: Ole Miss
Yeah, the Alabama game is on the road, but there’s a week off to prepare. There’s no Florida or Georgia to deal with, the non-conference slate should bring four relatively easy wins, and the team only leaves the great state of Mississippi once – at Auburn on October 30th – after October 16th.
Loser: Arkansas
Arkansas might be better now, but every game ranges from uh-oh to totally annoying. How’s this for pain and suffering?
The Texas A&M game is in Arlington, Texas. That means the dates with the Aggies, Georgia, Ole Miss, LSU and Alabama are all away from home. Who do the Hogs get in Fayetteville early on?
Texas. And later they get Auburn. And that run of A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss means the team doesn’t get a home game for about a month, and the LSU-Bama games are back-to-back.
SEC Schedules, Analysis, Best/Worst Scenarios
East Florida | Georgia | Kentucky | Missouri
South Carolina | Tennessee | Vanderbilt
West Alabama | Arkansas | Auburn | LSU
Mississippi State | Ole Miss | Texas A&M
