College Football Teams With the Toughest Schedules in 2024

The chaos caused by conference reorganization for the 2024 season has led to larger conferences. And those larger conferences have led to daunting schedules.

With all four remaining conferences without divisions this season, many teams’ chances of making the expanded College Football Playoff or even a bowl game may hinge on the absence of one or two conference powers from the schedule.

Other teams, like Florida, Colorado, and even Georgia, appear to have incredibly tough schedules heading into the 2024 season. Here’s a look at the teams that appear to have some of the toughest schedules this fall.

Florida

Year three of the Billy Napier era at Florida includes what appears to be the toughest schedule in the country. Not only does Florida play the toughest SEC schedule of any team in the conference, but the Gators also have Miami and Florida State as non-conference opponents.

Florida opens the season against Miami before traveling to Florida State to close out the season. After a bye week in the last week of October, the Gators’ final stretch is set to be extremely difficult with games against Georgia, Texas, LSU and Mississippi before facing the Seminoles. Florida hasn’t won more than six games in either of Napier’s first two seasons. A six-win season would be a feat in 2024 given the opponents on the schedule.

The Bruins’ first season in the Big Ten isn’t going to be an easy one as former UCLA RB Deshaun Foster begins his tenure as the team’s head coach. The non-conference schedule begins with a game at Hawaii before a trip to LSU in Week 4.

After LSU, UCLA will face Oregon and Penn State before traveling across the country to Rutgers for the final six games over a six-week span. The final four games of the season include Iowa, Washington, USC and Fresno State. A bowl game would be a huge feat.

Colorado

The Buffaloes have a much tougher schedule in 2024 than they did last season. And they’re not going to take anyone by surprise, either.

Seven of Colorado’s nine Big 12 games are against teams that made a bowl appearance last season. The Buffs’ schedule includes trips to Arizona and Kansas, as well as home games against Big 12 favorites Kansas State, Utah and Oklahoma State. The nonconference schedule begins with a game against longtime FCS power North Dakota State on Aug. 29 before road games against an improved Nebraska and rival Colorado State.

Deion Sanders and his staff have worked extensively through the transfer portal to improve the offensive and defensive lines ahead of the 2024 season. That improvement will need to be significant if Colorado wants to make a bowl game.

Georgia

The Bulldogs are the most talented team in the…