2012 SEC Football Schedule: Florida Will Have a Chance to Make Early Statements

Thanks in large part to the additions of Texas A&M and Missouri, things are going to be a little different in the SEC in 2012.

We're going to find out just how different things are in a few short hours, as the SEC revealed via Twitter on Tuesday that football schedules for the 2012 season are going to be released on Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET.

There have, however, already been a few leaks. 

The Gainesville Sun reported a couple days ago that at least two matchups have been confirmed for the Florida Gators. Per the report, the Gators will play at Texas A&M on Sept. 8 and at Tennessee on the third Saturday of September.

If this is true, it must be said that the Gators have drawn a raw deal. Opening with two early road games is never easy, much less two early road games against conference foes.

On the bright side, having to play a pair of early road games against notable opponents like Texas A&M and Tennessee presents the Gators with a certain opportunity. They may not feature prominently in the preseason top 25, but they would shoot up the rankings pretty quickly if they are able to pull out wins in these two early games.

It's obviously way too early to get your hopes up or down, though. The Gators have a lot of issues they need to fix on the offensive side of the football, starting of course with their quarterback situation. Will Muschamp will have to choose between Jacoby Brissett and Jeff Driskel, and neither of them played particularly well as true freshmen in 2011.

As for the rest of Florida's schedule, The Sun claims that LSU will still be a permanent opponent for the Gators, and Florida will also have to get used to playing Missouri every year. Mizzou is joining Florida in the SEC East.

Ole Miss was set to become a rotating opponent, but the additions of Texas A&M and Missouri nixed those plans. The Gators also won't get a rematch against Auburn after losing to the Tigers in mid-October.

We'll know soon enough how everything is going to fall in place, but it's already apparent from the early reports that the Gators are going to have it pretty rough out of the gate in 2012.