Phil Steele: Top 25 hardest schedules ahead of 2024 College Football season
The 2024 college football season is rapidly approaching, so fans across the country are looking ahead at their team’s schedules and predicting how they’ll finish during the regular season.
To help aid fan judgment, Phil Steele has compiled his annual list of college football’s Top 25 hardest schedules. Steele utilized the “NCAA method” to rank these schedules, which compiles each team’s opponent’s records from the previous season.
Six teams — three each — from either the SEC or Big Ten occupy more than half of the top 10. Check out who made the cut below:
1. Florida Gators
Florida boasts the hardest schedule in the country heading into the fall. Kicking off their slate against Miami, the Gators will also do battle with UCF and Florida State in non-conference action. They will play Samford during Week 2, however.
As for Florida’s SEC schedule, they match up against the likes of Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Texas, LSU and Ole Miss during the final six-game stretch of their conference slate heading into the season final against the Seminoles. After 2023’s 5-7 finish, the Gators will have their work cut out for them in 2024.
2. UCLA Bruins
UCLA ventures into the Big Ten with a new head coach looking for a fresh start in 2024. Big Ten play starts almost immediately as after a season-opening trip to Hawai’i, they’ll be battling Indiana in LA during Week 2.
A huge matchup against LSU follows the conference opener before the Bruins take on a familiar face in Oregon, who is also in the Big Ten now. Penn State, Nebraska, Iowa, Washington and rival USC will all prove to be roadblocks for UCLA as the Bruins look to improve on their 8-5 season from one year ago. Somehow, they avoided Ohio State and Michigan on their regular season schedule.
3. USC Trojans
Moving on over to the Big Ten alongside UCLA, the USC Trojans have their work cut out for them from Week 1 until the end of the season. Kicking off the season in Las Vegas against LSU, the Trojans will battle Utah State at home before traveling to Ann Arbor for a date with reigning national champions Michigan on the road.
Matchups against conference opponents such as Wisconsin, Penn State, Washington, Nebraska, UCLA and finally non-conference foe Notre Dame in the season finale will follow.
4. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Georgia Tech finished 2023 with its best record (7-6) since the 2018 season. They’ll be put to the test this fall, however.
The Yellow Jackets will kick off its 2024 regular season in Dublin against Florida State. Matchups against Georgia State, Syracuse and VMI in the first four weeks should see Georgia Tech enter the rest of ACC play with at least a 2-2 record. From there, it’s about gaining at least four more wins within a conference schedule still featuring Louisville, North Carolina, Miami and NC State. That’s not including non-conference matchups down the stretch against Notre Dame and Georgia.
5. Houston Cougars
Despite Oklahoma moving on to the SEC, they’ll still battle the Sooners in Norman during Week 2 of the 2024 regular season. After that, the rest of the Cougars’ season lies in their hands.
Matchups against Cincinnati, Iowa State, TCU, Kansas, Utah, Kansas State, Arizona, Baylor and BYU — the entirety of Houston’s Big 12 schedule — could be argued as games where Houston could find themselves on the winning end of things. However, something similar to last year’s 4-8 finish could be on the table as well.
6. Purdue Boilermakers
Having conference-less opponents such as Notre Dame and Oregon State on the schedule leading up to nine-straight Big Ten matchups is a tough pill to swallow for the Purdue Boilermakers. They’ll kick off the season against Indiana State, but that’s all the smooth sailing Purdue will face this season.
Ensuing matchups against Nebraska, Wisconsin, Oregon, Ohio State and Penn State will force the Boilermakers to scratch and claw for every win they’ll be forced to earn in 2024.
7. West Virginia Mountaineers
West Virginia will face the Penn State Nittany Lions to kick off its 2024 regular season, but the madness for the Mountaineers isn’t done there. In fact, 11 of WVU’s 12 opponents this season play in a major conference.
On top of the nine-game Big 12 schedule and the Penn State matchup, West Virginia will also test its strength against the ACC’s Pitt Panthers. The only break in their schedule will be against Albany during Week 2.
8. Georgia Bulldogs
Georgia starts the 2024 regular season fast and furious this fall with a season-opening matchup against Clemson in Atlanta. Include road matchups against Alabama and Texas within the first seven weeks of the season — it’s no wonder the Bulldogs found themselves on this list.
Expected to be a leading contender for a national title, the. Bulldogs are expected to be favorites in almost, if not all games they’ll play this season. Their schedule also includes matchups vs. Florida, at Ole Miss and vs. Tennessee.
9. Alabama Crimson Tide
The Kalen DeBoer era kicks off in Tuscaloosa with matchups against Western Kentucky and South Florida before things get serious.
DeBoer faces the first true road game of his Alabama career with a trip to Wisconsin during Week 3. They’ll follow that up with a blockbuster Week 4 headliner against Georgia in Tuscaloosa. Matchups against Tennessee, Missouri, LSU — a road trip to Oklahoma — and the Iron Bowl will all provide Alabama with legitimate tests throughout the regular season.
10. Stanford Cardinal
The Cardinal is heading to the ACC in a few weeks. In turn, they’ll be put to the test early and often in 2024.
Stanford is an 8.5-point underdog, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, to TCU at home to kick off the regular season. The Cardinal will fly across the country to battle Syracuse during Week 3 before making another cross-country trip the following week to Clemson. Stanford also has a road trip to Notre Dame on its schedule, as well as a home matchup against Louisville, who is coming off a run to the ACC Championship last season.
11-25
11. Virginia Cavaliers
12. Florida State Seminoles
13. Colorado Buffalos
14. Vanderbilt Commodores
15. Michigan Wolverines
16. Mississippi State Bulldogs
17. Oklahoma Sooners
18. Arkansas Razorbacks
19. Arizona State Sun Devils
20. Wisconsin Badgers
21. Washington Huskies
22. Michigan State Spartans
23. BYU Cougars
24. Kentucky Wildcats
25. Northwestern Wildcats