i don't know if this has been mentioned, but the level of quarterbacking and coaching in the big ten is very very good.
troy and michael robinson are having career years. henne is your prototypical NFL-type player. tate, stanton, and basanez can all ball. cupito and stocco aren't great, but can be very effective when the running game is there. and purdue's got their new QB, who should improve under the tutelage of tiller.
the acc has a lot of talent, but has poor QBs and coaching. the SEC is ordinarily very good, but this is a huge down year for them, given how bad florida and tennessee are. LSU is overrated, and alabama is just woeful on offense right now. the only teams i like are auburn and georgia (i love watching shockley, he's such an accurate passer).
the big xii obviously sucks.
the pac-10 is an interesting conference. i think it's underrated as a whole. in other conferences, you usually have a few teams that are very good, every year. this gives the illusion that the conference is strong (like how people viewed the big xii when OU, tex, neb, colorado, and k-state were all top 10, even though all those teams would usually lose their bowl games). the pac-10, other than usc, is just ridiculously inconsistent. you don't know what the hell to make of these teams. teams are great one year, terrible the next. teams are great for parts of the season, terrible during other parts. teams are great for one game, terrible for the rest. teams are great for every game but one, and horrible in that other one. teams play great during parts of one game, and then horrible in the other part.
it's just totally impossible to figure that conference out. so for the rest of the country, the easy thing to do is just say, "bah, they don't play defense out there, they suck", when actually, the truth is far more complicated. a team can be predicted to finish 10th in the preseason and they'll finish 2nd. and vice-versa. wacky, wacky conference.
wisconsin is the most overrated team in the big ten, iowa is the most underrated (losing to michigan in OT, and they were dominating northwestern before onside kick did them in). hopefully iowa gets one of the florida bowls against an SEC team; wisconsin won't represent if they get into the outback or citrus. and who knows which michigan team will show up in their bowl game. if they have to play auburn in the citrus they are going to get rolled. whoever we send to the alamo bowl will win; the sun bowl will be very interesting. we should also win the music city. iowa will win their bowl game, unless they somehow end up playing auburn (that would be a very good game)
georgia will beat LSU.
another thing about bowl records. no conf has a harder bowl schedule than the big ten; no conf has an easier schedule than the acc. the acc is matched up almost exclusively against the big east and other minor conferences. it's a total joke. they will probably post the best record, but it's a fraud.
here's what the big ten's bowl schedule could look like:
#1 vs ACC Champion
#2 vs Notre Dame
#3 vs SEC #2 (even though Auburn is probably the best team in the SEC)
#4 vs SEC #3
#5 vs Big XII #4
#6 vs Pac-10 #3
#7 vs SEC #6
if we are to assume that the 5 major conferences are equal, you'd have to assume that the big ten would have a losing record. if they go 4-3 or 5-2, there should be no doubt as to which conference is the best this year.
now take a look at the acc's bowl schedule. it's embarrasing.
