On3 Roundtable: Excitement building for Texas’ 2024 SEC schedule

The SEC released the 2024 schedules for all teams last week, and it should be a memorable first year in the league for the Texas Longhorns.

Texas will host Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Florida in Austin, with road games at Texas A&M, Arkansas and Vanderbilt. The Longhorns will also continue their yearly rivalry meeting with Oklahoma in Dallas.

Bobby Burton of Inside Texas joined On3’s JD PicKell on the On3 Roundtable to break down the Longhorns’ 2024 schedule.

“I think it’s a fantastic schedule. My immediate response was to text Texas Athletics Director Chris Del Conte, and I said, ‘You’re going to have no problem selling season tickets,’” Burton recalled. “He wrote a one-word reply: ‘Yes.’ He’s excited. I think Longhorn Nation is excited, as well.”

The SEC has established itself as the best conference in college football, and adding Oklahoma and Texas only adds to its strength.

Moving into the SEC allows Texas to renew matchups with some of its former rivals, while also maintaining its rivalry with Oklahoma.

The Longhorns have a loaded roster, are recruiting well and now have a fun and challenging schedule to go with it.

“I’ve gotta be honest, the prospect of not only kindling the Texas A&M rivalry, even the Arkansas rivalry, joined by keeping OU in Dallas. And then welcoming Georgia and Florida – two nationally renowned universities, good football programs, to Austin, and hosting those guys. I think that the Longhorn nation is very, very excited,” Burton said.

When the schedule was first released, there were some who said that Texas got off easy since it doesn’t have to play Alabama or LSU in its first year in the SEC.

PicKell doesn’t see it that way, though. Texas not only has a fairly tough SEC slate, but the Longhorns also have to face off against Michigan on the road out of conference.

If the Longhorns are national title contenders in 2024, PicKell says they will have earned it.

“There was a lot of people that I saw talking about, ‘Well, Texas got off easy with the schedule and Oklahoma‘s is much tougher,’” PicKell said. “Right now, that might be how it looks. But Texas, if they are to make the College Football Playoff in 2024, they will have to go through Michigan, they will have to play a Georgia. I promise you, the deck is still pretty stacked if you’re a Texas fan, as well.”