UKat
01-11-2007, 10:41 PM
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
2006 BCS Conference Comparison
My buddy Mark, a huge Arkansas fan, texted me first thing Tuesday morning:
“See, I told you we could play football in the south!”
After Florida’s 41-14 drubbing of Ohio State, SEC fans feel vindicated, Big Ten supporters aren’t picking up the phone, and WAC junkies are just begging for a chance.
The Which Conference is Better debate never really stops, but intensifies dramatically around bowl season, with top teams from every conference in the nation going doing battle throughout the holiday season. There are plenty of fans, maybe even a majority, who will throw their support behind conference rivals they can’t stand in November just so their conference looks better on a national stage. So which conference really is the best?
There’s not much question that the SEC has the most potent collection of dangerous teams and this year, of course, has the national champion. During the season, when Ohio State and Michigan appeared to be the two biggest baddies in the land, a few commentators hailed the Big Ten as America’s premier conference because it boasted the two best teams. Occasionally, the PAC-10 or Big XII will get a nod thanks to a confluence of great athletes in the same season.
One thing that drives me absolutely criminally insane about the way announcers cover college football is their adamant refusal to really examine a question for an extended period of time. ESPN has completely diminished the excitement of a great argument by not letting their commentators speak for more than 20-30 seconds about any particular issue. One might perhaps suggest that this time limit exists because Lou Holtz, Mark May and Lee Corso rarely know enough about any one topic to speak much longer. I hate this attention-deficit “debate”; talking spout one or two talking points, and nothing really gets discussed. I’d much rather see a weekly half-hour show devoted to one particular question, or topic, like this one, than see a show try to devote 30 seconds to every topic imagineable.
So, in that spirit, I’m going to use this column to try to rank the 6 BCS conferences in 2006.
To attempt such a thing, you have to first agree on a definition of “best.” I, for one, don’t buy that the SEC is the best conference just because the national champion is from there. You also can’t throw around meaningless stats like “conference X has the most bowl teams.” Almost all bowls are done because of conference affiliations, so all that number does is show how badly a conference’s teams were desired a few years ago when the contracts were written. No method is perfect, because everyone has a slightly different, personal definition of what “best” means. But, for my money, the “best” way to determine “best” is by asking this question:
If you were a completely average team, the most average team in America, 59.5th best out of 119 teams…in which conference would it be the hardest to have a winning record?
In order to answer this question, I’m going to utilize the following method:
List each conference in order of how the teams finished the regular season.
Compare all the first place teams against one another, and then the second, and so on, assigning point values (6 for 1st, 5 for 2nd, etc.)
Different conferences have different amounts of teams, and therefore different max points, so at the end, we’ll divide each conference’s points by their max points, and get a %, where 100% is the best possible.
And then maybe we’ll know, at least in 2006, which conference truly was the best.
#1
ACC – Wake Forest
Big 10 – Ohio State
Big 12 – Oklahoma
Big East – Louisville
Pac 10 – USC
SEC – Florida
Obviously, you’ve got to put Florida tops here, and based on what we saw Monday, its not that close. Second is a really close battle between Ohio State, USC and Louisville. I’d like to give Ohio State the benefit of the doubt, thinking that they can’t really be as bad as they looked Monday, and they probably aren’t. But USC flat-out drilled a team Ohio State struggled to beat on their home turf, and I don’t see how you could bet against Pete Carroll with any time at all to prepare. Louisville did beat West Virginia, and we’ll credit the Cardinals for building a great home field advantage. But without any real impressive performances outside of that, I think they’re behind OSU and USC. Oklahoma is a fairly clear next choice, with Wake Forest being pretty far behind the pack at #6.
SEC (6), 2. Pac-10 (5), 3. Big 10 (4), 4. Big East (3), 5. Big 12 (2), 6. ACC (1)
#2
ACC – Georgia Tech
Big 10 – Michigan
Big 12 – Nebraska
Big East – Rutgers
Pac 10 – Cal
SEC – Arkansas
Ranking the #2 choices is difficult, because its almost indisputable that two of the #3s (Wisconsin and LSU) are better than all these teams right now. Since Arkansas lost to a Wisconsin team that Michigan beat by 14, I’ll take the Wolverines tops, followed by the Hogs. Cal and Nebraska might play to a near standstill, but I’ll take Cal in third because they beat Texas A&M by 35, and Nebraska needed a late TD to win by 1. Cal also has a slightly better “best win,” drilling Oregon State by 28, while the Huskers probably claim a 14 point win over Missouri in this category. Georgia Tech looked very good in the Gator Bowl, and Reggie Ball did a lot more good on the pine than he did under center. But even at their best, the Ramblin’ Wreck lost by 3 to a team Rutgers took to 3OT in Morgantown. So I’ll take Rutgers 5th, Tech 6th.
Big 10 (10), 2. SEC (11), 3. Pac 10 (9), 4. Big 12 (5), 5. Big East (5), 6. ACC (2)
#3
ACC – VA Tech
Big 10 – Wisconsin
Big 12 – Texas
Big East – West Virginia
Pac 10 – Oregon State
SEC – LSU
This is a surprisingly potent collection of teams, with Wisconsin, LSU and West Virginia all being legitimate top 10 teams, and Texas the defending national champ. LSU’s win over Notre Dame isn’t that impressive, because Notre Dame is…well that’s a different column. Wisconsin got it done all year, and despite being outplayed most of the game against the Hogs, got a big win in the Capital One Bowl. I think its LSU by a hair over the Badgers, with West Virginia not that far behind in third. Texas is a very powerful team physically, but didn’t seem to have the focus that made its 2005 unit great, evidenced by the Kansas State loss and the squeaker over a bad Iowa team. Had VA Tech beaten Georgia in Atlanta, I might take them above the ‘Horns here, but I think its got to be Texas, the Hokies and then a team that’s impossible not to like, the 10-4 Oregon State Beavers.
SEC (17), 2. Big 10 (15), 3. Big East (9), 4. Big 12 (8), 5. ACC (4), 6. Pac 10 (10)
#4
ACC – Boston College
Big 10 – Penn State
Big 12 – Texas A&M
Big East – South Florida
Pac 10 – UCLA
SEC – Auburn
This is where you start to see a major dropoff in some of the weaker conferences. Auburn is a runaway #1 here, having beaten the 4th best 2nd place team in the Outback Bowl. Before the bowls, I think BC would have been a clear cut #2 here. They boast three good wins (Clemson, VA Tech, Maryland). TAMU’s win over Texas and UCLA’s win over USC are better, but those teams didn’t do a lot the rest of the year. A&M was close, losing to Nebraska by 1, Oklahoma by 1 and Texas Tech by 4 for its only pre-bowl losses. We learned a lot about UCLA in their awful bowl performance against the ‘Noles, and I think their 6 losses really keep them from being taken seriously. Penn State impressed me in the bowl game, but I still don’t think their offense is that impressive. This is probably the toughest group to rank of all, but I’ll take Penn State second, Boston College third, Texas A&M fourth and UCLA fifth. South Florida is, of course, 6th.
1. SEC (23), 2. Big 10 (20), 3. ACC (8), 4. Big 12 (11), 5. Pac 10 (12), 6. Big East (10)
Continued below
2006 BCS Conference Comparison
My buddy Mark, a huge Arkansas fan, texted me first thing Tuesday morning:
“See, I told you we could play football in the south!”
After Florida’s 41-14 drubbing of Ohio State, SEC fans feel vindicated, Big Ten supporters aren’t picking up the phone, and WAC junkies are just begging for a chance.
The Which Conference is Better debate never really stops, but intensifies dramatically around bowl season, with top teams from every conference in the nation going doing battle throughout the holiday season. There are plenty of fans, maybe even a majority, who will throw their support behind conference rivals they can’t stand in November just so their conference looks better on a national stage. So which conference really is the best?
There’s not much question that the SEC has the most potent collection of dangerous teams and this year, of course, has the national champion. During the season, when Ohio State and Michigan appeared to be the two biggest baddies in the land, a few commentators hailed the Big Ten as America’s premier conference because it boasted the two best teams. Occasionally, the PAC-10 or Big XII will get a nod thanks to a confluence of great athletes in the same season.
One thing that drives me absolutely criminally insane about the way announcers cover college football is their adamant refusal to really examine a question for an extended period of time. ESPN has completely diminished the excitement of a great argument by not letting their commentators speak for more than 20-30 seconds about any particular issue. One might perhaps suggest that this time limit exists because Lou Holtz, Mark May and Lee Corso rarely know enough about any one topic to speak much longer. I hate this attention-deficit “debate”; talking spout one or two talking points, and nothing really gets discussed. I’d much rather see a weekly half-hour show devoted to one particular question, or topic, like this one, than see a show try to devote 30 seconds to every topic imagineable.
So, in that spirit, I’m going to use this column to try to rank the 6 BCS conferences in 2006.
To attempt such a thing, you have to first agree on a definition of “best.” I, for one, don’t buy that the SEC is the best conference just because the national champion is from there. You also can’t throw around meaningless stats like “conference X has the most bowl teams.” Almost all bowls are done because of conference affiliations, so all that number does is show how badly a conference’s teams were desired a few years ago when the contracts were written. No method is perfect, because everyone has a slightly different, personal definition of what “best” means. But, for my money, the “best” way to determine “best” is by asking this question:
If you were a completely average team, the most average team in America, 59.5th best out of 119 teams…in which conference would it be the hardest to have a winning record?
In order to answer this question, I’m going to utilize the following method:
List each conference in order of how the teams finished the regular season.
Compare all the first place teams against one another, and then the second, and so on, assigning point values (6 for 1st, 5 for 2nd, etc.)
Different conferences have different amounts of teams, and therefore different max points, so at the end, we’ll divide each conference’s points by their max points, and get a %, where 100% is the best possible.
And then maybe we’ll know, at least in 2006, which conference truly was the best.
#1
ACC – Wake Forest
Big 10 – Ohio State
Big 12 – Oklahoma
Big East – Louisville
Pac 10 – USC
SEC – Florida
Obviously, you’ve got to put Florida tops here, and based on what we saw Monday, its not that close. Second is a really close battle between Ohio State, USC and Louisville. I’d like to give Ohio State the benefit of the doubt, thinking that they can’t really be as bad as they looked Monday, and they probably aren’t. But USC flat-out drilled a team Ohio State struggled to beat on their home turf, and I don’t see how you could bet against Pete Carroll with any time at all to prepare. Louisville did beat West Virginia, and we’ll credit the Cardinals for building a great home field advantage. But without any real impressive performances outside of that, I think they’re behind OSU and USC. Oklahoma is a fairly clear next choice, with Wake Forest being pretty far behind the pack at #6.
SEC (6), 2. Pac-10 (5), 3. Big 10 (4), 4. Big East (3), 5. Big 12 (2), 6. ACC (1)
#2
ACC – Georgia Tech
Big 10 – Michigan
Big 12 – Nebraska
Big East – Rutgers
Pac 10 – Cal
SEC – Arkansas
Ranking the #2 choices is difficult, because its almost indisputable that two of the #3s (Wisconsin and LSU) are better than all these teams right now. Since Arkansas lost to a Wisconsin team that Michigan beat by 14, I’ll take the Wolverines tops, followed by the Hogs. Cal and Nebraska might play to a near standstill, but I’ll take Cal in third because they beat Texas A&M by 35, and Nebraska needed a late TD to win by 1. Cal also has a slightly better “best win,” drilling Oregon State by 28, while the Huskers probably claim a 14 point win over Missouri in this category. Georgia Tech looked very good in the Gator Bowl, and Reggie Ball did a lot more good on the pine than he did under center. But even at their best, the Ramblin’ Wreck lost by 3 to a team Rutgers took to 3OT in Morgantown. So I’ll take Rutgers 5th, Tech 6th.
Big 10 (10), 2. SEC (11), 3. Pac 10 (9), 4. Big 12 (5), 5. Big East (5), 6. ACC (2)
#3
ACC – VA Tech
Big 10 – Wisconsin
Big 12 – Texas
Big East – West Virginia
Pac 10 – Oregon State
SEC – LSU
This is a surprisingly potent collection of teams, with Wisconsin, LSU and West Virginia all being legitimate top 10 teams, and Texas the defending national champ. LSU’s win over Notre Dame isn’t that impressive, because Notre Dame is…well that’s a different column. Wisconsin got it done all year, and despite being outplayed most of the game against the Hogs, got a big win in the Capital One Bowl. I think its LSU by a hair over the Badgers, with West Virginia not that far behind in third. Texas is a very powerful team physically, but didn’t seem to have the focus that made its 2005 unit great, evidenced by the Kansas State loss and the squeaker over a bad Iowa team. Had VA Tech beaten Georgia in Atlanta, I might take them above the ‘Horns here, but I think its got to be Texas, the Hokies and then a team that’s impossible not to like, the 10-4 Oregon State Beavers.
SEC (17), 2. Big 10 (15), 3. Big East (9), 4. Big 12 (8), 5. ACC (4), 6. Pac 10 (10)
#4
ACC – Boston College
Big 10 – Penn State
Big 12 – Texas A&M
Big East – South Florida
Pac 10 – UCLA
SEC – Auburn
This is where you start to see a major dropoff in some of the weaker conferences. Auburn is a runaway #1 here, having beaten the 4th best 2nd place team in the Outback Bowl. Before the bowls, I think BC would have been a clear cut #2 here. They boast three good wins (Clemson, VA Tech, Maryland). TAMU’s win over Texas and UCLA’s win over USC are better, but those teams didn’t do a lot the rest of the year. A&M was close, losing to Nebraska by 1, Oklahoma by 1 and Texas Tech by 4 for its only pre-bowl losses. We learned a lot about UCLA in their awful bowl performance against the ‘Noles, and I think their 6 losses really keep them from being taken seriously. Penn State impressed me in the bowl game, but I still don’t think their offense is that impressive. This is probably the toughest group to rank of all, but I’ll take Penn State second, Boston College third, Texas A&M fourth and UCLA fifth. South Florida is, of course, 6th.
1. SEC (23), 2. Big 10 (20), 3. ACC (8), 4. Big 12 (11), 5. Pac 10 (12), 6. Big East (10)
Continued below