Good breakdown here from CFN’s Pete Fiutak. If you want the tl;dr version, here ’tis:
Winner: Arkansas. It might not be a great team Sam Pittman is taking over, but there’s no complaining about the schedule. There’s no Florida or Georgia from the East, LSU and Alabama are both home games, and the team doesn’t leave the state for the whole month of October.
Loser: South Carolina. Didn’t the Gamecocks catch a bad break with last year’s schedule? Yup, and now try this – road games at Florida, LSU and Clemson, along with home games against Georgia and Texas A&M. If there’s a misfire at Kentucky early on, or against Tennessee, uh-oh.
Winner: Texas A&M. It’s all relative in the SEC West, but start with replacing Clemson with Colorado on the non-conference side. The Aggies go all of September without playing a team that went to a bowl game, and after going to Mississippi State – very winnable – they get a Fresno State team that didn’t go bowling.
They had to play Alabama and Auburn on the road, but they only leave Texas once between the start of the season and October 17th. Three of the last four games – including LSU – are at home.
Loser: Florida. The overall schedule is actually not that bad – there’s no Alabama or Auburn from the West – however, the Gators have their annual date against LSU right before leaving Gainesville for a big chunk of the season. After hosting the Tigers on October 10th, they’re not back at home for a game until November 14th.
If you’re wondering why a lot of pundits see TAMU as this year’s breakout team, look no farther than that schedule.
Get The Picture 
Looking at that, I predict BOOM will have plenty of time for catching up on all his shows on Netflix after the season (or maybe by midseason). The Unicorn he found in Athens this year is the only reason he still has a job. I heard Unicorns are now extinct.
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Strongly disagree with his take. UF has a relative cakewalk this year, as from the west they get to host a massively rebuilding LSU team at home and go on the road to face Ole Miss with a first year coach. Meanwhile, we have to play at Bama early, and AU the following month with their star QB in the making (IMO). Huge advantage for UF.
Due to scheduling alone, JAX is a must win if we want to win the east.
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WTF is it with all the Auburn warnings I keep seeing here? How much has Georgia struggled with the Tigers in Athens lately?
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Well, they did beat bama and remain a legit bowl team. They won’t be challenging for a playoff spot, but with a lucky bounce or two they can beat anyone on their schedule. You think some of their opponents should be marking that game as a W already?
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That’s not even close to a fair response to my question. I get any given Saturday as much as the next person. Nor am I dismissing Auburn. I’m simply wondering why Auburn is posed as such a serious threat to Georgia at home, given its abysmal track record over the past few years.
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Yeah, Auburn doesn’t’ scare me but I would put them in the top 4 of the teams we play in 2020.
#1 Bama
#2 UF
#3 Auburn
#4 Virginia (Speaking of Virginia, this will be a special game of interest for you, no?)
I don’t think lighting will strike twice as in SC’s case.
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If, by “interest”, you mean, “gee, I really hate that matchup”, yeah, it’s special. 😉
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I see Auburn as slightly more of threat than last year. Maybe it was growing up during a period of home field disadvantage in the Auburn game but I don’t put much weight in who is at home for that game.
I do think Bama is set to take firm control of the West again ad UGA doesn’t win the trip to the city which is home to the Alabama insane asylum. A loss to Bama makes every game after that a must win. UF does get a cakewalk, UGA should win but it is a rivalry game.
A&M is set to battle Auburn for 2nd in the West. A&M has never beating Auburn at home but the series tied at 5-5. A&M is in luck as they are traveling to the plains where they have more success against Auburn.
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If Jimbo doesn’t get 10 wins this year TAMU might start to figure out that they hired a con man.
Let’s see what a UGA flavored staff at Cackalacky can accomplish.
I’ll be real interested in how Sam Pittman does as a head coach.
Mizzou could be interesting with a new coach.
The Mississippi teams could be entertaining, especially the egg bowl.
How long till Gus takes over play-calling again?
I’m betting that the gayturds will “not” get 10 wins.
What is LSU going to do for its’ next act?
If we can beat Bama then 12-0 is a very real possibility going into Atlanta.
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IMO, Jimbo is Kevin Sumlin with a championship. They both rode the coat tails of talented nut job qb’s in Winston and Manzeil to some notoriety and haven’t done much of anything since. Texas A&M is singing the same song to a different tune.
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Don’t forget Chizik.
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I’d love to face TAMU in the SECCG. If we can come into that game with 1 loss or less, with Monken’s new offense jelling late season, I like that scenario.
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When we were counting wins last January, how many experts gave Ga State a win over UT and USCe a win over Georgia?
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Georgia’s going winless at home, PAWWWLLL!!!
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Ga State’s head coach was planning the win in Knoxville before the season started.
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In a show of home state support, HEB grocery stores in College Station are stocking up on crab legs.
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Great work there, FPD. Post of the day.
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