So, the 2024 SEC football conference opponents are set and the major crisis was averted.

Rivalries were preserved and revived so the race to decide who got screwed the most came next. Of course, everyone was.

Back in reality, slotting eight games for each of the now 16 teams that’ll make up the SEC a year from now looks like a real-life round of Chutes and Ladders.

On top of keeping the Third Saturday of October and the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry alive, the league wanted to keep the 16 schedules balanced. There was also the directive to avoid sending any team to a location that appears on its 2023 schedule.

Achieving balance meant assessing the 14 current teams based on their league record since the last expansion in 2012. Oklahoma and Texas would be judged based on its Big 12 record over the same period.

Since Vanderbilt can’t play everyone, there will be some bickering over the fairness of the eight games assigned to each school Wednesday evening.

As such, both Alabama and Auburn have 2024 dates with the Commodores, owners of by far the lowest overall winning percentage since 2012. In that spirit, let’s look at what where Alabama and Auburn could complain and why it’s not so bad after all.

Why Alabama would be mad

The Crimson Tide is one of three teams to get both halves of the 2022 SEC title game on its 2024 schedule. Ole Miss and Florida also have the pleasure of facing LSU and Georgia — also the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in terms of winning percentages among SEC teams since 2012.

Alabama gets LSU on the road along with Tennessee, the more recently successful Big 12 addition in Oklahoma and the (no offense) palate cleanser in Nashville. When looking at the 11-year sample size, Tennessee’s winning percentage isn’t great — 11th of the 14 incumbent SEC teams. But the momentum is clearly heading in a different direction after last season’s renaissance.

Nick Saban’s resistance to a 9-game SEC schedule was the annual inclusion of Auburn, Tennessee and LSU. All three of them made the 8-game schedule for 2024 with the addition of two-time reigning national champ Georgia.

Gone with the abolition of divisions would be annual meetings with Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Arkansas. The Bulldogs and Arkansas have combined to beat Saban once in his Crimson Tide tenure and Ole Miss hasn’t taken down the Tide since now-Auburn coach Hugh Freeze was in Oxford.

Why Auburn could be mad

The Tigers have to play at Georgia and Alabama.

Other than Auburn, only one team has both the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide on the schedule. That’s Tennessee and those two games are split between home and away.

Brutal.

The Tigers’ other two road trips are two Kentucky and Missouri, traditionally in the bottom half, but have had their moments.

Why Alabama should be happy

They get Georgia at home for the second time in a row. The Bulldogs came to a reduced-capacity Bryant-Denny Stadium for a 2020 loss and haven’t played host to the Crimson Tide since 2015. So maybe they can say they got screwed?

Home games with Missouri and South Carolina are likely penciled-in wins but aren’t necessarily the kind of sexy East games everyone pined for in the divisional era.

A road trip to Norman is certainly a novelty since it’s only happened once previously. The 2002 loss to Bob Stoops’ group didn’t get a Daniel Moore painting so memories are there to be made.

Then there’s Vanderbilt where Alabama hasn’t lost since 1969 and traditionally overruns with crimson anytime it travels to the West End of Nashville.

Why Auburn should be happy

The two with the worst winning percentages since 2012 — Arkansas and Vanderbilt — are home games.

Getting Oklahoma in Jordan-Hare is also pretty cool considering no Sooner in football pads has ever darkened a doorway at the only SEC school with a Buc-ee’s in town.

The Tigers avoid LSU for the first time since 1991 though the 2024 rotation would’ve had the game in Auburn instead of Baton Rouge. The two Mississippis also come off the schedule for the first time in decades as West Division foes.

The bottom line

In a way, we’re splitting hairs here.

Beating the best has always been the path SEC teams have taken to its recent reign of dominance so embracing the added degrees of difficulty isn’t a bad idea.

Nobody got screwed.

The 2024 season is the dawn of the 12-team playoff era where there figures a little more tolerance for an extra loss or two. Strength of schedule is a factor so get out there and prove something.

The fact we’re sitting here debating the ins and outs of a football schedule two years in advance in the middle of June is enough of a win for the SEC.

So let’s enjoy the rest of the summer and get back to this 32 days from now when SEC Media Days open in Nashville.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.