How difficult is Texas A&M football's 2025 schedule compared to the rest of the SEC?
The 2025 schedules for the entire SEC were just released last night, and Texas A&M football fans had a lot to say about their draw. It's never an easy road playing in the SEC (well, unless you snag all three of Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Vandy), but the Ags had an especially tough draw in some respects.
With that in mind, I set out to create a rough-but-objective ranking of how difficult each SEC schedule is. I sorted opponents into 4 tiers: the first is premier opponents, the second is solid squads, the third is middling teams, and the fourth is games you'd be embarrassed to lose.
I then accounted for home and road difficulty, and the way each schedule sets up as far as how the games themselves are stacked (i.e., do you have a bye before a big game, several in a row on the road, etc.). Here's how the teams shook out.
Ranking SEC schedule difficulty: 16 - Tennessee
This one surprised me a bit to see on the list given that the Vols play both Georgia and Alabama, but a closer look at the schedule reveals that there is not a whole lot for UT to worry about outside of those two games, unless Florida takes a major step forward.
A game in Atlanta against Syracuse might be their fourth-toughest contest next year—which means this schedule has an extremely high floor for Josh Heupel. Anything less than 9-3 would be coaching malpractice, which means that— on average— this is a pretty easy slate.