B1G is down this year, but lets not overreact. FWIW Ohio State would be a national title contender if they weren’t under sanctions.
SEC = Pac12
Completely underwhelmed watching Florida-LSU last week.
Were you underwhelmed when LSU ran over Washington 41-3 or when Alabama ran over Michigan 41-14?
This has been a common theme, year after year.
I'll use the past 3 seasons and the top 8 schools to show how deep the conference is. The odd teams out are Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. I'd go beyond 3 seasons but I'm not going to spend an hour looking at a decade worth of schedules for 8-12 teams. I'll show every OOC loss from Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee over the past 3 season. I'll only show their wins over AQ teams.
Regular Season Wins:
2011: 27-11 Alabama beats Penn State - #23
2011: 40-27 LSU beats Oregon - #3
2011: 47-21 LSU beats West Virginia - #16
2011: 42-38 Arkansas beats Texas A&M - #14
2011: 34-14 South Carolina beats Clemson - #17
2011: 31-17 Georgia beats Georgia Tech - #23
2011: 45-23 Tennessee beats Cincinnati
2010: 24-3 Alabama beats Penn State - #18
2010: 30-24 LSU beats North Carolina - #18
2010: 20-14 LSU beats West Virginia - #22
2010: 24-17 Arkansas beats Texas A&M
2010: 27-24 Auburn beats Clemson
2010: 38-14 Florida beats USF
2010: 29-7 South Carolina beats Clemson
2010: 42-34 Georgia beats Georgia Tech
2009: 34-24 Alabama beats Virginia Tech - #7
2009: 31-23 LSU beats Washington
2009: 47-19 Arkansas beats Texas A&M
2009: 41-30 Auburn beats West Virginia
2009: 37-10 Florida beats Florida St
2009: 20-17 Georgia beats Arizona St
2009: 30-24 Georgia beats Georgia Tech - #7
2009: 7-3 South Carolina beats North Carolina St
Regular Season Losses:
2011: 38-24 Clemson beats Auburn
2011: 21-7 Florida St beats Florida
2011: 35-21 Boise St beats Georgia - #5
2010: 31-7 Florida St beats Florida - #22
2010: 29-27 Colorado beats Georgia
2010: 48-13 Oregon beats Tennessee - #7
2009: 24-10 Oklahoma St beats Georgia - #9
Assuming those 8 teams played 4 games OOC each season, that's a record of 89-7 with only 1 loss to a team from a non-AQ conference(Boise St). The West only lost 1 game(Auburn) and until the past few years, the East had been the better division.
Bowl Wins:
2011: 29-16 Arkansas beats Kansas State - #8
2011: 43-24 Auburn beats Virginia
2011: 24-17 Florida beats Ohio St
2011: 34-13 South Carolina beats Nebraska - #13
2010: 49-7 Alabama beats Michigan St - #9
2010: 41-24 LSU beats Texas A&M - #17
2010: 22-19 Auburn beats Oregon - #2
2010: 37-24 Florida beats Penn St
2009: 37-21 Alabama beats Texas - #2
2009: 20-17 Arkansas beats ECU
2009: 38-35 Auburn beats Northwestern
2009: 51-24 Florida beats Cincinnati - #3
2009: 44-20 Georgia beats Texas A&M
Margin of victory - 3, 3, 3, 7, 13, 13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 24, 27, 42
Bowl Losses:
2011: 33-30 Michigan St beats Georgia - #17
2010: 31-26 Ohio St beats Arkansas - #6(vacated)
2010: 26-17 Florida St beats South Carolina - #23
2010: 10-6 UCF beats Georgia - #25
2010: 30-27 North Carolina beats Tennessee
2010: 27-10 Pittsburgh beats Kentucky
2009: 19-17 Penn St beats LSU - #13
2009: 20-7 Connecticut beats South Carolina
2009: 37-14 Virginia Tech beats Tennessee - #11
Margin of loss - 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 11, 13, 17, 23
They won 9 of their 13 games by 13+. They lost 5 of their 9 games by 5 or less. This would have been even more lopsided if I had used Mississippi State instead of Tennessee. They were 2-0 in bowls beating Michigan 52-14 and Wake Forest 23-17 while Tennessee was 0-1. I'm assuming that Mississippi State will eventually fall back into obscurity though and Tennessee will right the ship which is why I used Tennessee instead of Miss State. Dan Mullen will get better job offers and top 10 winningest programs with stadiums that hold 100,000 don't stay down forever.
Like it or not, SEC has been hands down the best conference in the BCS era and like it or not, they've earned their rankings until someone dethrones them. Another reason people think they're the best might have something to do with bottom feeders like Kentucky beating LSU the year they won the championship only for LSU to turn around and blowout Ohio State in the championship. Or how about Missouri being one of the winningest programs over the past 5 years going into the season and losing to Vanderbilt. Nobody is impressed when they beat each other but at the same time, the 8 teams I used have combined to beat 23 teams from AQ conferences over the past 3 seasons. That's one win shy of each of those 8 teams averaging a win a season over an OOC AQ team. It's not like OOC teams aren't given an opportunity to knock them off during the regular season. And to be honest, we're really not the conference that should be questioning the strength and depth fo the SEC...
Won by 16 Michigan St - Eastern Michigan(MAC)
Won by 14 Ohio State - UAB(CUSA)
Won by 11 Wisconsin - UTEP(CUSA)
Won by 11 Iowa - UNI(FCS)
Won by 10 Purdue - Marshall(MAC)
Won by 7 Indiana - Indiana St(FCS)
Won by 5 Michigan - Air Force(MWC)
Won by 5 Wisconsin - UNI(FCS)
Won by 5 Minnesota - Western Michigan(MAC)
Won by 3 Minnesota - UNLV(MWC)
Won by 2 Wisconsin - Utah State(WAC)
Won by 1 Iowa - Northern Illinois(MAC)
Lost by 1 Iowa - Central Michigan(MAC)
Lost by 2 Indiana - Ball St(MAC)
Lost by 10 Penn St - Ohio(MAC)
Lost by 28 Illinois - LaTech(WAC)
Hard to believe there are some people that are arguing that this conference is on par with the SEC and don't see the desparity. You're free to believe whatever you want but just because some of you think they're overrated due to your hatred for them, doesn't make it true. If you want to see overrated, watch the Big 12 and Pac 12 light each other up. Oklahoma and Oregon average 60 points a game in those conferences only to put 14 and 19 on the board against Florida and Auburn. I don't see anybody arguing that they were overrated though for beating up on bad defenses. Like I said, you're free to believe what you want but you're not going to convince me. Maybe if you pay me off or something.
P.s. If the SEC = Pac 12, does that mean 8 BCS championships = 0 BCS championships?
