Whoever made this decision should be fired. It’s bad enough we play Mississippi State in a few years home and home and will get two blowout losses on the schedule early. Now we have to play not only an SEC school but arguably the best one by far.
It’s bad enough this news comes as we just got embarrassed by Purdue on homecoming and now we are going to get pounded by Illinois and Penn State (especially since it’s their famous white out game). By the time that’s done we will be lucky to win another game the rest of the way, let alone bowl eligibility. Plus lose the bowl game if we even get that far.
Maybe instead of doing crazy stuff like scheduling powerhouse SEC schools we can work on beating the Purdues and Illinois of the world first. Plus work on actually beating our rivals on a consistent basis, especially on the road more often (Iowa and Wisconsin especially come to mind), and make a dent in how lopsided they are (Michigan and Penn State especially come to mind here). Not to mention Nebraska will find their footing and get strong again too.
I’m also not falling for the play the best to be the best, because getting knocked around by Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn State, etc. for years did nothing to make the program better or get any better recruiting. Stop scheduling ridiculous SEC schools (even schools such as Vanderbilt are good now too) as we have had trouble beating MAC schools and FCS schools and even lost to them. Now you’ve just guaranteed two more non conference losses and being embarrassed on national TV with nothing to gain from it.