Strength of schedule often gets ranked in the preseason, which makes no sense. It should always be assessed after the season is over. And, with the CFP being the goal, all that really matters in that regard are losses.

With that in mind, the types of things that typically go into SOS rankings such as the relative strength of all the teams on your schedule, have less meaning. Really, is there any functional difference between playing a 3-9 G5 school vs a 9-3 G5 school? The reality for SEC teams is that both games are expected wins. What really matters is how many elite teams are on your schedule. These are the games that you really stand a chance of losing and are going to make or break your team's chances of making the CFP.

So, looking back at the regular season, let's look at how many elite or CFP-worthy teams were on every SEC team's schedule. I count CFP-worthy as any SEC team finishing 6-2 or better in the conference (SEC Standings) or any other team currently in the CFP Rankings top 12.

Num CFP-worthy opponents:

5, Auburn, Florida, LSU, South Carolina, Texas
4, Arkansas, Kentucky, MSU, Mizzou, Tennessee
3, Alabama, Oklahoma,
2, Georgia, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt

Now for the rest of the CFP rankings top 12:

2, Notre Dame
1, BYU, Indiana, Miami, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas Tech

It's going to be like this every year going forward in the SEC, especially since the conference is moving to a nine game schedule. There are going to be so many tough games on everybody's schedule. Meanwhile the other "power" conferences have it easy.