We are still two months away from SEC Media Days, but football fans are already looking forward to the opening of the 2013 football season.
In years past that meant a steady diet of games against overmatched opponents. It was football-lite in most cases.
As recently as 2000, SEC teams opened with games against Wyoming, SW Missouri, Ball State, Georgia Southern, Western Carolina, Tulane, Memphis, New Mexico State and Miami of Ohio. Only Alabama (who faced UCLA), Kentucky (who faced Louisville) and Tennessee (who faced Southern Miss) played what would be considered good competition.
But things have changed. Pressure to beef up schedules and TV-arranged games that are ratings boosters have led to better opening week games.
That has never been more evident than taking a look at the first week of the 2013 SEC schedule. There will still be a couple of cupcake games to pad records and make coaches happy but it also has a host of classic matchups that will satisfy fans and TV executives.
Here is a quick look at how the season will kickoff at the end of August, opening with two games on Thursday, August 29 before a host of activity on Saturday the 31st.
There are two quality games to open the season on Thursday, August 29. Vanderbilt hosts Ole Miss in a conference game, and South Carolina hosts North Carolina in an SEC-ACC matchup.
The rest of the conference teams get underway two days later on August 31.
Alabamahas a tough opening in its quest for three straight national championships. The Crimson Tide opens against Virginia Tech in the Kickoff Classic in the Georgia Dome. Playing in that game has been good for the Crimson Tide in recent years. Even if Alabama gets the season underway with a win (and even if it doesn’t), a revenge game two weeks later at Texas A&M awaits Nick Saban’s team two weeks later.
Georgia has a tough SEC-ACC matchup when the Bulldogs travel to Clemson to open the year. The Bulldogs then have a date with SEC East rival South Carolina waiting in the wings the following week.
LSU and Mississippi State will open their season in the state of Texas with SEC-Big 12 matchup games. LSU will meet TCU in Cowboys Stadium. The Bulldogs will face off with Oklahoma State in Houston’s Reliant Stadium.
In other games, Auburn will hostWashington State and Texas A&M meets Rice.
Of course there will still be a diet of games that should guarantee SEC victories to start the season. Kentucky plays Western Kentucky in Nashville, Arkansas plays Louisiana, Florida plays Toledo, Arkansas meets Louisiana, Tennessee plays Austin Peay and Murray State will be at Missouri.
There are always going to be games that are uninteresting to nobody outside of fans of the two teams involved, but thanks to the push to upgrade schedules, the opening week of the football season now looks a lot more enticing.