There have been critics of the SEC’s decision to stay with an eight game-conference schedule for the 2024 season since the conference announced the decision during the league’s spring meetings.

On Wednesday, after the release of the opponents for that schedule, Paul Finebaum had a message for those critics.

“I just remember two weeks ago, it feels like a year, we were in Destin and listening to all the critics and all the cynics say, ‘The SEC blew it,’” he said during the SEC Network reveal of the schedule. “‘They didn’t do the right thing by going to nine.’ I want to see nine. I think most people do. But they did an amazing job. I think they shut everyone up.”

For the most part, there is nothing but excitement for the reveal of the schedules.

Greg McElroy, the former Alabama quarterback and Texas native, is stoked about the Longhorns playing Texas A&M.

The Longhorns host Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi State, then travel to Oklahoma (in Dallas), Texas A&M, Vanderbilt and Arkansas.

“It’s only appropriate to welcome them in the league by showing off the very best we have to offer as a league,” McElroy said Wednesday.

He added “Georgia’s schedule is absolutely brutal,” while LSU’s schedule is “manageable.”

“There is not an easy schedule on the list,” he explained. “I thought the SEC did a phenomenal job of creating competitive equity. I think LSU, however, has a fairly manageable schedule.”

LSU hosts Alabama, Oklahoma, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. The Tigers get Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina and Texas A&M on the road.

McElroy called it a “relatively negotiable path.”

Meanwhile, Tim Tebow called Oklahoma’s schedule a “gauntlet.”

The Sooners have home games against Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas (in Dallas), while they travel to Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss and Missouri.

“The SEC gave Oklahoma gauntlet in 2024,” Tebow said. “Come one, man. What a gauntlet in year one. That’s like giving someone a hug and a spanking them at the same time. … They might need some help from that softball team.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.