Let's just look at our SEC schedules for comparison:
2011........................................2012
#16 UF.....................................#18 UF
#1 LSU.....................................#19 MSU
#2 Bama...................................#5 UGA
#14 SC.....................................#1 Bama
#8 Arky.....................................#13 SCAR
8.2 avg......................................11.2 avg
It isn't that much of a difference, insofar as the number and strength of the ranked opponents. In fact the biggest difference in SOS might be that UF last year ended up being way overrated and this year UF ended up being way underrated.
If you compare the rest of the schedule, we have Vandy and KY both years, but this year we added Mizzou in lieu of MTSU. NCSU and Cincinnati are a wash.
My take, looking at the same schedule is that this year is actually MORE difficult than last year, on the whole. The problem is that many of us bought in to a pre-season idea that this season would be easier and that was largely based on MSU being a non-entity, UF being in a downward trend, and UGA being bad (even though no one who is paid to evaluate this sort of thing agreed). Just my two cents...
