Best conference (Merged All)

[funman]

The big ten is down from last year with tOSU being the only real powerhouse here this year. Penn St and Mich both are down and Iowa is in my "i'll believe it when i see it" catagory. Minny is a solid team, a good filler as is wisky. Indiana, Ill, NW, Mich St, and Purdue all suck

Lots of experienced QBs in the B11 this year. Sparty has Drew Stanton and he carved OSU up for a half last year. Mich defense should be improved this year and Hart is healthy they will have better balance on offense. Morelli can flat out throw the ball and PSU has lots of speed on the outside as deep targets. Also let the season progress a little and see how much Ill and Ind have improved under second year coaches. they just might upset a team or two.

 

[ytownbuckeye]

BIG TEN

 

[BrianO]

big 10

I am a big 10 homer as well. There are a lot of very physical teams in the big 10.

The SEC is great no doubt but I would love to see those teams play ball on a wet windy gray Oct or Nov day up north when the temps are in the mid 30s. This is where you need to be able to play, as well as play against, a 3 yards and a spat type offense.

 

[High Lonesome]

Lots of experienced QBs in the B11 this year. Sparty has Drew Stanton and he carved OSU up for a half last year. Mich defense should be improved this year and Hart is healthy they will have better balance on offense. Morelli can flat out throw the ball and PSU has lots of speed on the outside as deep targets. Also let the season progress a little and see how much Ill and Ind have improved under second year coaches. they just might upset a team or two.

I really think that many of you guys should take off the big ten glasses this year. It is down. Funman, i am quoting your post but hardly just speaking to you. The big ten may have returning QB's (which is more than i can say for the big 12) but for the most part is doesn't matter. Mich ST is not a good football team, hell Idaho gave them a game. Once again, they're no Colorado but you get the point. Mich's defense looked good against vandy but wait IT WAS VANDY. Minnesota will do what they always do, which is just enough to be mediocre. Penn ST has deep threats yes...but that's it on offense and their defense consists of a linebacker. wisky is down. Iowa is a good team not great. Even if Ill and Ind are improved they still suck, improvement is only relative with them....The big ten is down this year compared to last year.

More than anything though, the NCAA as a whole seems to be down this year. Its the SEC and everyone else

 

[BB73]

I thought it would interesting to divide up the levels of competition along the following lines
Head to Head - for those occasions when two teams from the same conference play one another {truncated to vCON}

How can vCON ever be anything but a .500 record? I always just toss that out when comparing conferences.

 

[Zurp]

I think that the Big Ten will look better when only one team gets a BCS Bowl Game. With Ohio State, last year's Big Ten #2, getting a BCS Bowl Game, whoever was #3 (Iowa, maybe?) got the Citrus Bowl, #4 got the Outback Bowl (Wisconsin, maybe?), and so on.

Don't get me wrong - I like that Ohio State got the Fiesta Bowl. But I think that it tends to make the Big Ten look weaker than it really is when the rest of the teams are pushed up a notch to play tougher opponents than the Big Ten originally signed on for.

 

[BB73]

I think that the Big Ten will look better when only one team gets a BCS Bowl Game. With Ohio State, last year's Big Ten #2, getting a BCS Bowl Game, whoever was #3 (Iowa, maybe?) got the Citrus Bowl, #4 got the Outback Bowl (Wisconsin, maybe?), and so on.

Don't get me wrong - I like that Ohio State got the Fiesta Bowl. But I think that it tends to make the Big Ten look weaker than it really is when the rest of the teams are pushed up a notch to play tougher opponents than the Big Ten originally signed on for.

WIth 10 BCS teams, this will be less of an issue. More conferences will have a second BCS team.

 

[kinch]

After today's games I find it hard to argue that the Big Ten is the best conference. From what I have seen so far, I would say:

SEC (by a good margin)
ACC/Big Ten (tie, and I spent a while debating this) (edit: just for kicks, my gut was ACC)
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
Big Twelve/Pac-10 (couldn't decide this one either) (edit: just for kicks, my gut was Big Twelve, but my mind, despite normality, says Pac 10)
. . .
Big East

 

[beatnd]

SEC the best conference?....then prove it! :-)

Here's some data I looked up that I'll throw out here to you guys....it just seems very interesting to me the way the SEC always claims they're number one and/or complains about being left out of the big game at the end of the year (as happened to Auburn and should have happened to Florida this year)....yet unlike the Big 10 (& Pac 10) the SEC (& Big 12) less often play tough BCS opponents out of conference....and worse yet often play very very weak Div 1-AA opponents out of conference....seems to me they should put their schedules where their mouths are if they want to claim #1 conference status? :-)

OUT OF CONFERENCE SCHEDULING FOR LAST 5 YEARS

SEC
% vs BCS conference opponents 28.10%
% vs other D1-A opponents 59.10%
% vs D1-AA opponents 12.80%

Big-12
% vs BCS conference opponents 29.60%
% vs other D1-A opponents 53.40%
% vs D1-AA opponents 17.00%

Pac-10
% vs BCS conference opponents 40.00%
% vs other D1-A opponents 51.70%
% vs D1-AA opponents 8.30%

Big East
% vs BCS conference opponents 41.20%
% vs other D1-A opponents 47.90%
% vs D1-AA opponents 10.90%

Big-10
% vs BCS conference opponents 43.10%
% vs other D1-A opponents 52.20%
% vs D1-AA opponents 4.70%

ACC
% vs BCS conference opponents 48.30%
% vs other D1-A opponents 40.00%
% vs D1-AA opponents 11.70%

 

[coastalbuck]

Interesting information, wouldn't play well over on swamp grass though.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

The SEC did appear to be the deepest conference this year. But was it really that much better than the Big 10? The Capital One Bowl and Outback Bowl don't support that conclusion.

As you know, those bowls have matched up Big 10-SEC teams for years now. After BCS teams are taken, the top two choices from each conference goes to these bowls each year. This means that in years when the BCS takes two teams from one of these conferences and only one team from the other conference, that the conference that gets 2 teams into the BCS is at a disadvantage in these bowls. They are matching their 3rd and 4th teams against the other conferences 2nd and 3rd.

Taking this into consideration, let's look at each conference's performance in the BCS and in the Cap One and Outback bowls for each year that the BCS has been in operation.


Year......BCS...............Cap One/Outback.....Advantage
1999......Both 2-0..........Big 10: 2-0.........Big 10
2000......Big 10: 2-0.......Split...............Big 10
..........SEC: 0-2....................................
2001......Both 0-1..........Split...............Push
2002......SEC: 2-0..........SEC: 2-0...........SEC (ouch)
..........Big 10: 0-1.................................
2003......Big 10: 1-1.......Split...............Big 10
..........SEC: 1-0....................................
2004......Big 10: 1-1.......Split...............Big 10
..........SEC: 1-0....................................
2005......Big 10: 0-1.......Split...............SEC
..........SEC: 1-0....................................
2006......Big 10: 2-0.......Split...............Big 10
..........SEC: 0-1....................................
2007......Big 10: ?-1.......Big 10: 2-0.........??????
..........SEC: ?-?...................................



Breakdown

In 2000, the teams split the Florida bowls but the Big-10 was 2-0 in the BCS and the SEC was 0-2, with one of the losses being head-to-head against the Big 10. Clear advantage to the Big 10 there.​

In 2002, the SEC was at a disadvantage by placing more teams in the BCS; and they still swept the Big 10 in the Florida bowls. They also were 2-0 in the BCS while the Big 10 was 0-1, with the loss coming against an SEC team. That is a big year for the SEC. Kudos.​

In 2003, 2004 and 2006, the Big 10 was at a disadvantage by placing more teams in the BCS; and they managed a split in the Florida Bowls for each of those years. Each conference won 1 BCS game in '03 and '04, so I'm giving the Big 10 the edge for those years. In '06, the Big 10 was 2-0 while the SEC was 0-1. Clear advantage to the slow northerners.​

So when comparing performance in January Bowl Games, the Big 10 has the advantage in the BCS era 5-2-1. Also, since the inception of the BCS the Big-10 is 10-8 in the Florida Bowls vs. the SEC in spite of having the "2-1 BCS teams" disadvantage 3 times to the SEC's once.​

Currently, each conference has one National Championship in the BCS era. This metric will change in 6 days. Stay tuned.​

 

[CookyPuss]

Nice work DBB. Scared me for a minute when I looked at '02 until I realized you were dating by the year the bowl games were played (January) and not the football season (this year '07 and not '06). So, Buckeye championship is under '03 in this listing. I'm posting my initial ignorance to hopefully save someone else from feeling stupid.

 

[Zurp]

Currently, each conference has one National Championship in the BCS era. This metric will change in 6 days. Stay tuned.

Are you not counting LSU's national championship, or Tennessee's?

I personally dislike the bowl match-ups as a way to measure a conference's rating against another conference. However, I can't think of a very good way to rank the conferences. One conference might say, "We were 4-2 in bowl games, and you were 2-4." Then, the other conference can turn around and say, "Our conference was 2-0 against your conference - you aren't so great." Then the first conference can say, "Well, our top three teams in our league had a combined 4 losses. The top three teams in your league had 6 losses, combined." Then the second conference says, "But our #3 team just beat your #3 team. They could go through your conference schedule with only 2 losses, but they lost 3 in our conference." And then the first conference, finished with their eighth beer of the night, starts to offer the second conference a beer, but then realizes that the second conference is still nursing their third beer, and makes some joke about maybe the second conference wants a baby bottle. So the second conference orders 2 orders of the spiciest chicken wings the place makes, and says that whoever finishes his wings second has to pay for ALL of the beers for the night. The first conference, who isn't so much into the spicy wings, but can't turn down a man-up challenge, goes all in. He pays for it the next morning, as he walks into the office and he remembers that he has a meeting in 5 minutes, but he knows he's going to be in the bathroom for the next 10 minutes. The second conference, who won the wing-eating conference and got all his beer for free, took advantage of the first conference and drank too much beer, and he's still in his bed. Both thinks he won every argument they had last night, but, really, neither one did.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

Are you not counting LSU's national championship, or Tennessee's?

...

Ooooops...

You're right. Tennessee did get the first BCS championship. While no conference had repeated as of Ohio State's championship, the SEC and Big 12 now each have 2. Looks like Ohio State has to even the score for the conference single handedly.

And yes, as has been frequently observed, a win will make us the first multiple BCS winner. In fact, a win will make us the only team to play in more than 1 championship game AND to have a winning record in championship games. Everyone else with more than one appearance is .500 or lower.

 

[calibuck]

Thanks for Resurrecting this Thread.....

Daddy Big Bucks, thanks for resurrecting this thread. It was interesting to review last year's (at approx this time) predictions and observations about 'the best conference' and read some of the contributors.

Zurp, I don't really know how to measure the 'best conference' unless it's head-to-head competition. And so much of the inter-conference play is the tops against the bottom feeders (each way), rather than the tops against the tops (note Texas vs. OSU, Tennessee vs. Cal as examples).

Bowl games? Kinda sorta. The BCS kinda makes shambles out of that statistic (B10 has two teams in BCS, relegating a 6-6 Iowa to take on mighty Texas from B12). So instead of B10 second place taking on B12 second place, our B10 played 'up in class' having a lower rated team play the B12 higher. If the rating systems work out right, then the higher rated should beat the higher rated 9 times out of 10 (yeah, right ).

Even then, Iowa came reeeeeeal close to beating higher rated Texas, Penn St beat much higher rated Tennessee, and USC beat (soundly) a much higher rated Michigan. (Could bring up Boise State vs. Oklahoma, but my wife's an Okie....). Can anyone spell P-A-R-I-T-Y?

Maybe Zurp's got the answer, analyze the statistics, and draw your own conclusions, but someone else's gonna look at the stats a different way and come up with a conclusion that's 180 degrees different. These differences of opinion are the beauty of College Football. And remember that opinions are like noses, everyone's got one.

:gobucks3: :gobucks4: Until then, I'm an OSU 'homer' that's open-minded enough to listen to everyone's evidence about why their league is the best. But thank goodness I'm from the B10, where we know we're the best .