STARKVILLE — Mississippi State found out its entire slate of 2024 football opponents when the Southeastern Conference announced league schedules for next year Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs will host Texas A&M, Florida, Arkansas and Missouri to go along with home non-conference games against Eastern Kentucky, Utah State and Massachusetts.
MSU will travel to Tennessee, Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas to go along with a non-conference road trip at Arizona State.
Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s opponent reveal.
1. Daunting road schedule, but great fan experiences
From a fan perspective, MSU’s 2024 road schedule is incredible. From a football perspective, the Bulldogs may have trouble winning games away from Davis Wade Stadium in two years.
MSU will travel to Georgia, Tennessee and Texas to go along with its annual Egg Bowl matchup at Ole Miss and a non-conference road game to Arizona State.
All fantastic college football venues. All fantastic college football programs.
The Bulldogs haven’t played in Athens since 2020 and haven’t won at Georgia since 1956. MSU hasn’t been to Knoxville since 2019 and haven’t won there since 1986. MSU hasn’t been to Austin since 1992, playing Texas at the Cotton Bowl in 1999 and has never played Arizona State before.
2. Traditional SEC West rivalries gone
With the end of divisions in the conference came the end of some of MSU’s long-standing SEC West Rivalries.
The Bulldogs have played Alabama every year since 1948, Auburn since 1955, LSU since 1944 and Kentucky since 1990, all of which will come to an end in 2024.
From a traditional standpoint, that stinks. From a football standpoint, that is a plus for MSU.
Alabama holds an 85-18-3 all-time record against MSU, who haven’t beaten the Crimson Tide since 2007. The Bulldogs hold a 29-65-2 all-time record against Auburn, though MSU has won the last two meetings and a 36-77-3 all-time record against LSU, losing four of the past five matchups.
3. Oklahoma will have to wait for 2025
Each of the current 14 SEC teams were slated to play one of, and in some cases both, Texas and Oklahoma when they enter the conference in 2024.
The Bulldogs got Texas, which likely pushes their first-ever meeting against Oklahoma to 2025.
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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