20 Best SEC Non Conference Matchups of 2016
Updated on August 15, 2016
SEC Best Non Conference Matchups
Last season the SEC finished the year with a 55-12 record in non conference games including bowl games and Alabama taking home another national title. What make the SEC good is that they usually take care of business in most of there regular non conference games against power 5 teams. In 2014 the SEC went 4-0 in marquee non conference games as Alabama beat West Virginia while LSU came back to beat Wisconsin and that same day as well Ole Miss beat Boise State and to top it off Georgia beat Clemson all on week 1 of the 2014 season. Last year they open up the season with victories as Alabama took care of Wisconsin , Texas A&M beat Arizona State and South Carolina win over North Carolina ended up being a huge upset at the end of the season. Also unlike the 2014 bowl season where we saw the SEC West go 2-5 in bowl games with Ole Miss leading the way with a 42-3 beat down against TCU, Auburn loss to Wisconsin while Alabama, LSU and Miss. State too. While the SEC East went 5-0 the same year with Tennessee beating Iowa 45-21, Georgia beating Louisville in the Belk Bowl and Florida, Missouri, South Carolina winning there bowl games as well. In 2011 LSU opened up the year against Oregon in highly anticipated non conference game between two top 10 teams and LSU took care of Oregon 40-27. But that same opening up week the SEC saw Georgia get beat by Boise State in the Georgia Dome by a score 35-21. This year is no different as the SEC has to prove that they are still the best conference as they face 20 non conference games that I feel they must win.
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9/3/16 - Alabama vs USC (Arlington)
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9/5/16 - Ole Miss vs Florida State (Orlando)
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9/3/16 - Clemson at Auburn
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9/3/16 - LSU vs Wisconsin (Green Bay)
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9/3/16 - UCLA at Texas A&M
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9/3/16 - Georgia vs North Carolina (Atlanta)
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9/10/16 - Tennessee vs Virginia Tech (Bristol, TN)
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11/26/16 - Florida at Florida State
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9/10/16 - Arkansas at TCU
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11/2616- Georgia Tech at Georgia
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9/3/16- Missouri at West Virginia
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10/14/16 - Miss. State at BYU
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11/26/16 - Kentucky at Louisville
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9/17/16 - Vanderbilt at Georgia Tech
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10/1/16 - Memphis at Ole Miss
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11/26/16 - South Carolina at Clemson
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9/3/16- Southern Miss at Kentucky
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9/24/16 - Vanderbilt at Western Kentucky
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9/17/16 - East Carolina at South Carolina
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10/15/16 - Southern Miss at LSU
Alabama has open the season the last four years with wins over Michigan ('12), Virginia Tech ("13), West Virginia ('14) and last year Wisconsin. LSU has three non conference games in power 5 matchup as well with wins over Oregon ('11), TCU ('13) and Wisconsin in 2014 in which they will face again this year in Green Bay, WI.
In 1992 the SEC went to a 12 team conference when they added Arkansas and South Carolina and went to having a conference championship game. It was a huge success after many experts were looking for it to blow up. But it took college football to where we are at now with most conference having a conference championship game to determine the champion. In 2012 they added Missouri and Texas A&M to push the conference to 14 teams. Although the SEC is the best conference in my opinion they did lose a couple of non conference games last season as Arkansas lost to Toledo and Texas Tech and you had Florida, losing to Florida State and get whipped in the Citrus Bowl by Michigan 41-7 and South Carolina lost to Clemson and Kentucky fell to Louisville.
