ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) ranked the 134 FBS team’s 2024 football schedules and has Ohio State's as the 16th most difficult. I really can’t argue with that as I haven’t really looked at the slates of the 15 teams listed above the Buckeyes. It's hard to believe that despite playing the B1G's three (other) best B1G teams (Oregon, PSU and MIchigan, with two of them on the road), there are 11 SEC schools with tougher schedules.
Of the top 25, there are 15 SEC teams, nine B1G, and one ACC (Georgia Tech). The only SEC team that didn't make the cut is Missouri--playing Murray State, Buffalo, Boston College and UMass isn't going to get you any SOS points but you do have a shot at claiming to be the best team in the Northeast. (And yet FPI gives the Tigers the eighth-best odds of making the CFP.)
Not content with the SEC dominating its Top 25, FPI gives the SEC a stranglehold on the Top 10 with the first eight spots plus Texas at 10. Nine of the next 15 spots are B1Gs, although the SEC does manage to squeeze in four more teams. There's a weird circle-jerk bias, as if the SEC is a group of cannibals keeping fed by eating each other's limbs. Will anyone be left standing at the end?
My #1 question: what's so special about Georgia Tech's schedule? The only team on its schedule in FPI's Top 25 is Georgia, plus it plays FCS schools Georgia State and VMI.
Hardest Schedules in College Football for 2024 according to ESPN FPI:
1. Florida
2. Mississippi State
3. Georgia
4. Kentucky
5. Auburn
6. Alabama
7. Oklahoma
8. Tennessee
9. Georgia Tech
10. Texas
11. Purdue
12. UCLA
13. Washington
14. Vanderbilt
15. Illinois
16. Ohio State
17. pic.twitter.com/DmJl4gsEmI
— College Football Report (@CFBRep) June 3, 2024
