Paul Finebaum gives his reactions to 2024 SEC schedule release

The SEC recently released its 2024 football schedule, which will be the first season for the conference with Texas and Oklahoma. This led to ESPN’s Paul Finebaum sharing his reaction to the 2024 SEC schedule release.

During an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, Finebaum explained that his biggest takeaway around the schedule release is actually the reaction to the eight-game schedule.

“My takeaway really had more to do with the future than ’24, and that is, is the momentum for nine games starting to subside?” Paul Finebaum said. “And I was gung-ho. I remember you guys being pretty positive and I felt like we were on the verge. Remember all that criticism of the SEC for not immediately going to nine?”

One of the major concerns with an eight-game SEC schedule in a conference that has 16 teams, is that there won’t be enough conference games to consistently play rivals while still making sure that players visit each conference stadium over the course of four years. After all, those games are more exciting for fans and a better product than most non-conference games.

Still, Finebaum feels that there is less of a push for the nine-game SEC schedule thanks to how much excitement there is around this release.

“But I think when you see how difficult this slate is it is going to cause at least the coaches, now the athletic directors and obviously the presidents will make that determination, but I think it’s a much healthier debate moving forward than it was after Destin in late May when we all concluded this is a one year deal,” Finebaum said.

“Then, when we saw the early part of the schedule, we all exhaled talking about how the SEC office had done a spectacular job, and I think that’s one thing that does not get enough credit. They knew there was some heat. It’s a complicated deal, as Greg had to explain a million times the other night, but I thought that schedule was spectacular, even with one less game for every school.”

Breaking down the toughest stretches on the 2024 SEC schedule

In the immediate aftermath of the schedule release, Paul Finebaum shared that he thinks South Carolina has one of the most difficult schedules.

“I found South Carolina’s to be treacherous,” Finebaum said. “They have a home game Oct. 5 against Ole Miss, and then they get to go to Alabama the next week. And after they recover from that, they go to Norman, Oklahoma. That’s brutal.”