The chaos of conference realignment ahead of the 2024 season has led to conferences expanding in size. And with those expanded conferences comes tougher schedules.
With all four remaining powerhouse conferences playing without divisional play this season, the ability of many teams to qualify for an expanded College Football Playoff or bowl games may depend on one or two of the powerhouse teams in their conferences being on the schedule.
Other teams such as Florida, Colorado and even Georgia also appear to have very tough schedules heading into the 2024 season. Here are some of the teams that appear to have the toughest schedules this fall.
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Florida
Florida is set to have one of the toughest schedules in the country in its third year under head coach Billy Napier, as not only does it play the toughest SEC schedule of any team in the conference, it also features Miami and Florida State as non-conference opponents.
Florida will open the season against Miami and then travel to Florida State to close the season. After an off-week in the final week of October, Florida’s final stretch will be extremely tough, with games against Georgia, Texas, Louisiana State and Mississippi before facing the Seminoles. Florida has not won more than six games in either of Napier’s first two seasons. Considering the opponents they’ve faced, six wins in 2024 would be an impressive feat.
The Bruins’ first season in the Big Ten Conference isn’t going to be easy with former UCLA running back DeShawn Foster taking over as the team’s head coach. The non-conference schedule begins with a game in Hawaii before a trip to LSU in Week 4.
After the LSU game, UCLA will play Oregon and Penn State before traveling across the country to Rutgers for the final game of a six-game, six-week slate. The final four games of the season are against Iowa, Washington, USC and Fresno State. A trip to a bowl game would be a major accomplishment.
Deion Sanders and his Colorado Buffaloes face an uphill battle for a potential bowl game berth as the team transitions from the Pac-12 to the Big 12. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
Colorado
The Buffaloes will have a much tougher schedule in 2024 than they did last season, and they’re not going to lose to anyone.
Seven of Colorado’s nine Big 12 Conference games are against teams that played in a bowl last season. The Buffaloes’ schedule includes trips to Arizona and Kansas, as well as home games against Big 12 championship favorites Kansas State, Utah and Oklahoma State. The non-conference schedule begins on Aug. 29 with a game against FCS perennial North Dakota State, followed by away games against favored Nebraska and rival Colorado State.
Deion Sanders and his staff have put in a lot of effort to upgrade their offensive and defensive lines through the transfer portal ahead of the 2024 season, and the improvements will need to be significant if Colorado wants to play in a bowl game.
Georgia
The Bulldogs are the most talented team in the SEC and are the only team in the conference that will play away games against three of the top four teams in the conference championship race.
Georgia visits Alabama on Sept. 28 before facing Auburn in their annual rivalry game a week later. On Oct. 19, the Bulldogs visit Texas for the first time since 1958. That game could be a preview of the SEC Championship. Texas is picked to finish second behind Georgia in the preseason SEC media poll.
Then, a week after playing Florida in Jacksonville, the Bulldogs will travel to Mississippi to host Tennessee on Nov. 16. Oh, and we didn’t even mention Georgia opens the season against Clemson in Atlanta. An undefeated 2024 season would be an impressive accomplishment.
It won’t be an easy first season in the Big Ten Conference for USC, and a non-conference game against LSU will only make this season even tougher. (Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
U.S.C.
Like its city rivals, USC will face LSU in 2024. The Trojans will face the Tigers on Sept. 1 in one of the featured matchups of Week 1. Three weeks after playing LSU, USC will visit Michigan and then host Wisconsin a week later.
Penn State also has a trip to Los Angeles and the Trojans must visit Washington. USC avoids Oregon on its 2024 schedule but finishes the season with a matchup against Notre Dame, which has its sights set on the College Football Playoff. We’ll know soon enough if USC’s defense is significantly improved from last season.
Alabama
While the Crimson Tide’s schedule isn’t as tough as Georgia’s, it’s far from easy in Cullen DeBoer’s first season in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama will visit Wisconsin in Week 3, then have a bye week before visiting Georgia in Week 5. They’ll then visit Tennessee on the 19th and Missouri a week later on the 26th at the end of October. Both the Volunteers and Tigers enter 2024 with playoff hopes.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier in November, with the final four weeks of the season including trips to Louisiana State and Oklahoma ahead of the annual Iron Bowl.
