Florida AD Scott Stricklin downplays impact of Gators' difficult 2024 schedule

The SEC will look a lot different next season with the conference parting ways with divisions and adding two new powerhouse programs into the fold with Texas and Oklahoma. Resulting in some new look schedules ahead of the 2024 season that vary in difficulty across the conference.

On paper, the Florida Gators 2024 football schedule can rival any program in the country as the most difficult. Starting and ending with games against Miami and Florida State with road matchups against Tennessee and Texas along with home games against LSU and Ole Miss in between. Not to mention an annual rivalry game against the Georgia Bulldogs.

However Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin is not worried about the Gators’ gruesome schedule, which he expressed during SEC Spring Meetings on Wednesday.

“This season is not about our schedule,” Stricklin said according to On3’s Jesse Simonton. “It’s about the Gators, and if the Gators are being the Gators, we’re going to be okay.”

Florida will look to show improvement this upcoming season ahead of their third year under head coach Billy Napier. Who has led the program to two straight 3-5 seasons in conference play and a 11-14 record overall the past two years.

A difficult conference schedule is nearly unavoidable in the SEC, but the Gators did not receive any favors with this year’s SEC slate. Particularly with the order of their matchups as their schedule features a six-opponent stretch featuring five SEC teams ranked in the top 25 of last year’s final College Football Playoff Rankings. Also facing four top-10-ranked opponents from last season in the month of November overall.

The challenge of the SEC is one thing, but Florida’s non-conference schedule is brutal, with Stricklin being asked if it was constructed with a four-team College Football Playoff in mind prior to the 12-team expansion where strength of schedule held more importance.

“I think we felt like by then we would probably have expansion. [At] Florida playing tough schedules is not new, Gators have played Florida State every year non-conference, we play eight SEC games every year, and we have played Miami periodically,” Stricklin explained. “We played Miami and Florida State in the same year both back in 2019, so just five years ago. So it’s not unusual for us to have a tough non-conference schedules.”

Outside of FCS Samford, the Gators face strictly in-state opponents in their non-conference schedule including UCF, which Stricklin even admitted may be overzealous.

“UCF was not in the Big 12 when we put that game on the schedule, so that’s one probably that we might have handled differently or put them in a different year had we known,” Stricklin said.

It will be fascinating to see how the Gators navigate through their challenging schedule this upcoming season and if the attitude of their athletic director changes at all once the season is in full swing.