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SEC keeps making life difficult for Florida Football with 2025 schedule release

The conference opted to keep schedules the same for 2025

By Benjamin Henderson

The SEC logo has a first coat of paint on the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as the grounds crew
The SEC logo has a first coat of paint on the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as the grounds crew / Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun / USA
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It seems that Florida Football can not catch a break. While some of their wounds have been self-inflicted, the SEC did the Gators minimal favors heading into the 2024 season after giving Florida one of the more difficult slate of conference games one could have conjured up.

But if Florida fans were hoping there was light at the end of the tunnel if they could just survive 2024, the SEC has other ideas for 2025.

Florida Football: Run It Back

The 2024 slate of games is one of the most difficult schedules in the history of football. With the potential for seven or eight ranked opponents when all is said and done, there is no window to breathe for the Gators in a make-or-break season.

Part of the difficulty comes from Florida scheduling FSU, Miami, and UCF in the non-conference rather than four cupcakes, but when the SEC came out with a revamped conference schedule to accommodate Texas and Oklahoma, people noted that Florida seemed to get the short end of the stick when it came to their conference difficulty.

For example, compare the slate of SEC games Florida got compared to the slate Missouri got:

Florida

Missouri

Texas A&M

Vanderbilt

At Mississippi State

At Texas A&M

At Tennessee

Auburn

Kentucky

At Alabama

Georgia

Oklahoma

At Texas

At South Carolina

LSU

At Mississippi State

Ole Miss

Arkansas

If Florida has Missouri's slate, 4-4 would be the bare minimum expectation. Instead, 4-4 seems like it would be a minor miracle for the Gators in 2024.

With all of that as a backdrop, word dropped yesterday from the SEC that in 2025 they were going to keep conference schedules the same, just flipping home sites.

Wait what?

Why?

Wasn't the entire point of the non-divisional setup to allow teams to rotate through and play everyone in the conference more frequently?

Instead, the SEC takes the easy way out, and if fans think that 2026 will be easier, we all know conference shuffling isn't done, and by then, the SEC will probably have to roll out another new schedule.

In one breath the only option for Gator fans and players is to embrace the challenge because no one is going to feel sorry for Florida.

In another breath though it is fair to ask who within the SEC offices did Florida annoy to earn such a fate for two years in a row.

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