SEC Releases 2013 Football Conference Schedule; State keeps Kentucky, adds South Carolina from East

Way back last year when the SEC officially announced Texas A&M and Missouri would enter the league and they begun the rescheduling process for football, league officials hinted that 2012 and 2013 would probably be temporary fixes until they could get the kinks worked out, hopefully for the 2014 and beyond schedules. Then just yesterday, AL.com's Jon Solomon wrote an article discussing the SEC most likely switch several cross-divisional permanent rivals for the 2013 season. Solomon also stated that he was told the new SEC schedule would be released soon, but only for the 2013 season. Well, we didn't realize when he said soon he meant today.

BREAKING: The #SEC will release the 2013 conference-only football schedule today at 2 pm CT at secdn.com

— SEC Sports (@SECSportsUpdate) October 18, 2012

This afternoon the SEC released the schedules for the 2013 football season for all member schools, and Mississippi State's looks as follows:

• Auburn - AWAY - September 14, 2013
  
• LSU - HOME - October 5, 2013
• Kentucky - HOME - October 26, 2013
• South Carolina - AWAY - November 2, 2013
• Texas A&M - AWAY - November 9, 2013
• Alabama - HOME - November 16, 2013
• Arkansas - AWAY - November 23, 2013
• Ole Miss - HOME - November 30, 2013
  

Here are some key notes from the SEC's release on the 2013 schedule:

-- The 2013 schedule is considered a "bridge" schedule and not based on any other previous or future scheduling formats. The SEC Athletics Directors will convene in Spring 2013 to begin formulating schedules for the 2014 season and beyond.

-- "As we began working on the 2013 football schedule, it became apparent that the conference would need another year of the ‘bridge' schedule to make everything work," said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. "I appreciate the SEC transition team and our athletics directors, who came together to put this schedule in place. We look forward to starting with our new scheduling rotation in 2014."

-- The eight-game conference schedule consists of six games played inside the division and two games against teams from the opposite division. The cross-divisional common opponents that were previously announced by the conference will not take place until 2014.

-- In order to maintain a balanced schedule for the 2014 season and beyond, there are three games that will have repeat hosts from the 2012 schedule. Those games are Ole Miss at Alabama, Texas A&M at Ole Miss and Georgia at Auburn.

With those games now in place and the UAB and Oklahoma State non conference games put in place within the last several weeks, we can say with strong confidence that the 2013 complete football schedule will look as follows:

Notes

• Well, we'll get those 7 home games that we wanted for sure now!
• Looks like State will have two bye weeks this upcoming season, which I don't hate
  
• LSU in October and I'm fine with that, because South Carolina will dip next season I believe and so will Arkansas.
• We have no clue what will transpire in Auburn this winter re: coaching, but I would expect them to again be down next season either way. That means depending on how State fares in the opener in Houston against Okie State, they could be 4-0 and coming off a bye headed into a big home game against LSU on the first weekend of October.
• Still no matchup with Missouri, but I am excited about the trip to South Carolina. I plan to make that one, lord willing.
• This schedule is still a tad front loaded, despite the added neutral site opener, with Alcorn, Troy, Bowling Green, and Kentucky all on the front half.

What do you guys think of the schedule for next season?

[UPDATE - 10.18.2012 - 2:42] MSU has now officially released the full 2013 football schedule, which confirms the schedule reported above.