SEC Football: Week 12 Schedule Isn't That Bad

The second-to-last week of the SEC's regular season of football is here, and so that means it's time for the annual whining about the conference's team's scheduling too many cupcake games at the same time.

This week, six SEC teams are playing non-power conference or FCS opponents. This is not that bad as far as individual weeks go. For one thing, the conference had seven such games back in Week 2. But even then, that wasn't that bad.

I know that Week 2 was a long time ago, so I'll refresh your memory. Here is how many games against non-power or FCS opponents each of the Power 5 conferences had:

• ACC: 11 of 14 teams
• Big 12: 8 of 10
• Big Ten: 10 of 14
• Pac-12: 9 of 12
• SEC: 7 of 14

Complain if you must, but the SEC hasn't at any point this season had a worse week of scheduling in terms of sugar overload than any of the other Power 5 conferences had in Week 2 alone.

At least the SEC schools playing cupcakes this week have a reason to do so. The guilty parties this time around are Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and South Carolina. What do they all have in common? Their big annual rivalry games are next week. Every team would take it easy the week ahead of the big rivalry game if it could.

So yes, the SEC has several bad matchups this week. It's because the SEC plays its worthwhile games across a longer period of time, starting in September when other power conferences are having 70-80% of their members playing their tune-up games in single weeks. It shouldn't be a big deal, but it is because people love to complain.