3 SEC football teams that will disappoint in 2024
Spring ball is in the books and we're all looking forward to the start of the 2024 season but there's a long three months standing between us and kickoff. SEC football fans have some extra reasons to be excited and they come in the form of newcomers Texas and Oklahoma.
The conference is going to look plenty different next season, especially since Nick Saban will no longer be roaming the sidelines in Tuscaloosa and there are two new contenders in town.
Will the newcomers actually push for a title or will they disappoint? And which normal members of the SEC will fall short of expectations and be dubbed "disappointments" in 2024?
3. Texas A&M Aggies
Something about Texas A&M just doesn't excite me heading into the season and that's not a knock on the Aggies. It has more to do with the schedule being a nightmare than anything else.
I think the excitement of getting top-five recruiting classes has fizzled out in College Station because they didn't live up to the expectations placed on them under Fisher. But Mike Elko is more of a cultural fit in College Station and he should be able to turn this thing around.
Some are expecting Texas A&M to be good right away under Elko and that's very possible seeing as he turned Duke around in a hurry, but I think expectations need to be tempered. Texas A&M has played its way into some post-spring Top 25 projections and that seems fair considering the roster is still solid, but the 2024 schedule is brutal.
Texas A&M opens the season with Notre Dame before getting a break in Week 2 against McNeese. Then it travels to Florida to face the Gators before another "bye" against Bowling Green. Following that, there are no more easy games with Arkansas, Missouri, LSU, and Texas all coming to College Station or playing the Aggies at a neutral site. They also travel to Mississippi State, South Carolina, and Auburn in SEC play.
This schedule sets up for around six losses which is too many for a projected Top 25 team.