
Most favorable SEC football schedules for 2025 season
Missouri will open its campaign on Aug. 28 against Central Arkansas, while Auburn will travel to Baylor on Aug. 29 and South Carolina is slated to face Virginia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia on Aug. 31.
Tennessee will also kick off its season in Atlanta. The Vols will face Syracuse in a neutral site matchup at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Aug. 30. Kickoff is slated for noon EDT (ABC).
Ahead of Week 1 contests, ESPN Football Power Index released strength of schedule rankings for all 16 SEC schools. ESPN FPI determines rankings based on rank among all FBS teams of remaining schedule strength from perspective of an average FBS team.
Tennessee has the third most favorable football schedule among SEC teams in 2025 and No. 15 nationally. Ole Miss and Missouri are ranked behind the Vols. Florida, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma have top three least favorable schedules and are opponents for Tennessee during the upcoming campaign.
More: 2025 Tennessee football returning starters preview
Below are national strength of schedule rankings for SEC schools for the 2025 football season.
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USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
'It put a chip on my shoulder': Texas A&M LB reflects on Texas recruiting snub
On Tuesday, Netflix released its much-anticipated college football series, "SEC Football: Any Given Saturday," which featured several SEC teams' journey during the 2024 college football season, including Texas A&M. While LSU, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina were heavily features, the revival of the Lone Star Showdown after the Texas Longhorns entered the SEC last summer was the primary focus during the second to final episode. However, Aggie fans have correctly pointed out that, outside of LSU's 38-23 loss in Kyle Field, every game Texas A&M was featured in was one of the team's five losses, including South Carolina and Auburn, two games that essentially ended A&M's College Football Playoff hopes. Still, the player interviews alone are worth the watch, starting and ending with Texas A&M junior linebacker Taurean York, who has been the team's starting middle linebacker since his 2023 freshman season. York finished the 2024 season with a team-high 82 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and his first career interception, and is considered one of the top defensive prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft. As an underrated prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, the Temple, Texas native, grew up a little less than an hour away from Austin, Texas, but did not receive any attention or an offer from the Longhorns, which was further revealed during his Thanksgiving trip back home before facing Texas that Saturday night. "(The game against Texas) for me, is extremely personal. I grew up 50 minutes away from the university of Texas. I was a top-1000 player. They never really called me, they never really showed me any attention. I had a high school teammate who was recruited by Texas and they flew a helicopter all the way down in Temple. My coach called me in there and sat in that meeting with them, those guys wouldn't give me the time of day. It put a chip on my shoulder for sure, but Texas A&M loved me through and through. They loved me for who I was as a player, as a person. That's when I closed the book on Texas." That's recruiting in a nutshell, and even Mike Elko, who was entering his second season as Duke's head coach at the time, tried everything in his power to lure York to North Carolina, not knowing he would inherit the elite defender just a year later. Texas A&M will travel to Austin this season to face a Longhorns team ranked No. 1 in the first US LBM Coaches Poll, this time on Black Friday. The Aggies defeated Texas during two of the last three games in Austin (2006, 2010). Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Cameron on X: @CameronOhnysty.


New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Does SEC, Big Ten or Congress run college football? Examining candidates atop the chaos
For better or worse, it looked as if the chaos engine that is college football finally had a hand on the wheel. Two hands, actually: Leaders from the SEC and Big Ten met in February in New Orleans, the most powerful leagues breaking bread to decide the future format of the College Football Playoff. Super conference powers, activated. Advertisement But old habits die hard. Only weeks later, the Big Ten still wanted more automatic qualifiers for the Playoff, while the SEC suddenly leaned toward more at-large bids. Just like that, the sport's newest power couple was already on the rocks as the chaos revved on. College football has long been plagued by too many forces pulling in too many directions, with no one in command. It's a confounding existence for such a popular, lucrative sport … but it's also what makes it so fascinating. We love the mess, exhausting as it might be. 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Those advocating for it will tell you that fixing college sports is a nonpartisan issue with coast-to-coast support, but that has yet to manifest on Capitol Hill, where numerous hearings and drafted bills have gone nowhere. The SCORE Act recently became the first bill to survive committee markups and could be put to a vote in the House of Representatives this fall, but it has little bipartisan support and plenty of outside opposition. POTUS threw his hat into the ring with a recent executive order that touts a goal of stabilizing collegiate athletics. In a more realistic sense, it simply adds another (very notable) name to this list. The order affirmed much of what college sports leaders are lobbying for on The Hill, while also stressing the value of preserving Olympic and other non-revenue sports. 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Baker has also been willing to cede control to the power conferences in an effort to keep the NCAA viable. The organization has far less influence under the settlement, though at least for the time being, it remains the only semblance of centralized leadership across all of college sports. And if there is any headway with Congress, the NCAA will continue to have a seat at the table. The billionaire oil magnate and Texas Tech mega booster is hoping to add another line to his CV: The man who saved college sports. He even created a non-profit dubbed Saving College Sports — the same name as the executive order Trump recently signed. It's a passion project for Campbell, a former Red Raiders football player who believes the TV popularity of college football can be leveraged in a way that boosts overall revenues, allowing all schools — not just the elite programs — to maintain their non-revenue sports while still bringing in enough to pay the athletes. 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(Top illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; Photos: Michael Hickey, Todd Kirkland, Ric Tapia / Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Chicago four-star linebacker schedules Tennessee football visit
Tennessee is recruiting toward its 2027 football signing class. Four-star linebacker Roman Igwebuike will visit Tennessee for the Vols' game against Georgia on Sept. 13, according to Allen Trieu of 247Sports. He has additional visits scheduled to Miami, Georgia, Florida, USC, Indiana, LSU, Ohio State and Illinois this season. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound prospect is from Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago, Illinois. 247Sports ranks Igwebuike as the No. 8 linebacker in the class and No. 7 player in Illinois. Tennessee offered Igwebuike a scholarship on March 13. Other SEC schools to offer him a scholarship include Missouri, Vanderbilt, Auburn, Texas, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi State. Linebacker JP Peace is Tennessee's only 2027 football commitment. Tennessee has 22 commitments in its 2026 football recruiting class: quarterback Faizon Brandon, wide receiver Tyreek King, offensive lineman Gabriel Osenda, linebacker Braylon Outlaw, defensive lineman CJ Edwards, defensive lineman Zach Groves, safety KJ McClain, safety Luke Thompson, defensive end Kedric Golston II, offensive lineman Edward Baker, wide receiver Zaydyn Anderson, quarterback Legend Bey, defensive lineman Dereon Albert, linebacker TJ White, cornerback Jamyan Theodore, defensive lineman Darryl Rivers, wide receiver Javonte Smith, linebacker Brayden Rouse, safety Jowell Combay, offensive lineman JB Shabazz, athlete Joel Wyatt and athlete Salesi Moa. This article originally appeared on Vols Wire: Four-star linebacker from Chicago to visit Tennessee football