Alabama, Florida and Ole Miss are huge SEC football schedule winners in one important regard
Three schools in particular seem to have "won" the recent SEC schedule release.
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Even though more and more universities around the country are switching to remote learning in the wake of coronavirus outbreaks from students returning to campus from summer break, the SEC is full steam ahead on playing its 10-game conference-only regular-season schedule starting Sept. 26. That schedule was released earlier this week with a few surprises – the Iron Bowl is not a regular-season finale, for example – and having done a deep dive three schools really won out: Alabama, Florida and Ole Miss.
The Tide first won by having Missouri and Kentucky as its two added opponents from the East Division. Solid enough programs, but Bama was fortunate not to land Florida. However, where Nick Saban's team really cashed in is having zero back-to-back road games. Since 2015, SEC teams playing in the second of a back-to-back road set with no bye week in between are just 13-35 straight up and 19-27-2 against the spread (from SDQL).
Alabama last played back-to-back road games in 2018 at Tennessee and LSU and crushed both opponents but had a bye week in between. The Crimson Tide are -130 favorites to win the SEC title this season at William Hill sportsbook and have the highest regular-season win totals via SportsLine oddsmakers at 8.5. They project to be favored in every game, but that's nothing new.
Florida (+800 to win SEC title), which added Arkansas and Texas A&M from the West, also avoids back-to-back road games and in fact won't travel more than about 75 miles from Gainesville in between an Oct. 10 trip to the Aggies and Nov. 21 visit to Vanderbilt. UF's only non-road game in that stretch is the annual neutral-site affair vs. Georgia in Jacksonville, this year on Nov. 7. The Dawgs, by comparison, play back-to-back weeks at Alabama (Oct. 17) and Kentucky (Oct. 24).
The Gators open on Sept. 26 at Ole Miss, and the Rebs are the only other SEC team without back-to-back road games sans the bye. First-year coach Lane Kiffin also got a pretty good draw from the East Division in Kentucky and South Carolina instead of, say, Georgia and Tennessee. Ole Miss is a +15000 long shot to win the SEC, however.
Via SportsLine oddsmakers: SEC regular-season win totals (w/William Hill odds to win conference title)
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