One of the hottest debates in all of college football this offseason was essentially an argument between the Big Ten and SEC. As everyone likely knows by now, the Big Ten plays nine conference games each season while the SEC only plays eight. The Big Ten believes this is unfair and that the SEC should match what they do and play nine conference games while the SEC doesn't feel the need to because their schedules are already tough enough.
Unfortunately for the Big Ten, the data is on the SECs side, and Georgia is the perfect example why the SEC doesn't need to change anything after the release of the preseason AP Poll on Monday.
Georgia's difficult 2025 schedule proves Big Ten narrative wrong
Georgia came in as the No. 5 team in the preseason AP Poll. To no one's surprise, the SEC was the conference that led the way with the most teams (10) in the AP Poll on Monday, so this automatically means that almost every team in the SEC will have a more difficult schedule this season than the Big Ten.
Georgia is the perfect case study for this because they will play a whopping five teams this season that are currently ranked in the AP Poll. This includes No. 1 Texas, No. 8 Alabama, No. 15 Florida, No. 21 Ole Miss and No. 24 Tennessee. Georgia also plays Georgia Tech and Auburn who fell in the "Others Receiving Votes" category.
Georgia isn't the only SEC team with a tough schedule this year either. In fact, the SEC has 15 of the 16 most difficult schedules in the country according to ESPN's strength of schedule metric. The one team who snuck in the top 16 who isn't in the SEC is Wisconsin at No. 12. It just so happens that the Badgers play at Alabama this season, so that explains why they are this high.
So make sure to share this information the next time someone from the Big Ten argues that the SEC should play nine league games every season, because when looking at real data the SEC has more difficult schedules even with one less conference game.