NCAA Football NEWS
I Hate The SEC - Settling The Debate
Published by Joey Kaufman on August 17, 2008
Hey guys. My name is Joey Kaufman and I am the lead blogger for the Southern California sports based website known as SoCal Sports Hub. Since Moondog is moving this week, I volunteered to blog here at MoonDog Sports for the next few days. Since I’m a Left Coast guy, I have a tendency to often reference California teams so please bear with me.
One of the most exciting aspects of college football is the fact that the toughest conferences can change on a yearly basis. Just a few years ago, the Big East nearly folded, but now they have had national championship contenders in Louisville and West Virginia ranked in the top five the past two seasons.
The Big Ten was once regarded as college football’s premier conference, but the recent performances of Ohio State in the past two BCS title games have put a dent in the conference’s shiny armor.
Seeing as conference strength often fluctuates on a yearly basis, it is quite easy to understand why so many college football fans tend to argue with one another over which is the nation’s toughest, most challenging conference. So I’ll take a crack at this one in an attempt to settle one of the biggest debates among college football fans, which is the strongest conference.
1. SEC: Personally, as a Left Coaster, I can’t stand the SEC. Their fans’ arrogance is overwhelming at times and their schools’ academic programs mirror the local junior high programs. However, when it comes to their football teams, it’s nearly impossible for any other conference to be ranked ahead of the SEC.
Sorry, but when your coaching lineup includes Urban Meyer, Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Les Miles, Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino, Tommy Tuberville, and Mark Richt (five of whom have won a national championship), then your conference is doing pretty well. This year the SEC has two legitimate national title contenders in Florida and Georgia and two dark horses in Auburn and LSU.
Besides the top of the conference, the bottom feeders have improved as well recently. Mississippi State went bowling last year, Ole Miss brought in Houston Nutt, Arkansas hired Petrino, Kentucky upset LSU a year ago, and even the conference’s worst team, Vanderbilt, was one win shy of becoming bowl eligible.
In addition to the conference’s top teams, the SEC also has some legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates as well. Last year’s winner Tim Tebow, Georgia’s dynamic duo of Knowshon Moreno and Matthew Stafford, and Florida’s Percy Harvin, are all expected to contend for a trip to New York’s Downtown Athletic Club. While I may not like to admit it, from top to bottom, the SEC is the clearly the nations best conference. At least right now.
2. Big XII: As with the SEC, the Big XII earns a high spot on this list because of the overall depth among its members. It also has its fair share of national title contenders with Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, Kansas, and Missouri, at the top of the list, but even the bottom isn’t looking so bad after all.
The resurgences in Boulder, Colorado, and Lawrence, Kansas are expected to continue in 2008. Nebraska with Bo Pelini at the helm should also rise from the Big XII cellar. What makes the conference so good, particularly on offense, is the high quality of play that the teams get from their quarterbacks.
Missouri’s Chase Daniel, Kansas’ Todd Reesing, Texas’s Colt McCoy, Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell, and Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, are all among the nation’s best. With strong play from its traditional powers and a resurgence from its bottom-feeders, the Big XII is closing the gap between it and the SEC.
3. Pac-10: Because of its late night starts and poor television contract, the Pac Ten has developed a poor reputation among the national media, and is really much stronger than most pundits want you to believe. USC is clearly the king of the conference with six consecutive conference titles, but Cal, Oregon, and Arizona State, are beginning to close the gap as evident by their performances a year ago.
What places the conference further down on this list is the fact that many of its members continue to float around mediocrity. Arizona, UCLA, Washington State, and Washington, have all floated around .500 the past few seasons. The middle of the pack teams really need to raise the bar if the Pac-10 is to one day become as strong as the SEC or the Big XII.
However, it is interesting to note that since 1998, the Pac-10 has been 8-4 in BCS bowl games, while the SEC is 11-4, so the gap isn’t too big.
4. Big Ten: The Big Ten can easily be classified as the Big One (Ohio State) and the Little 10. Besides, Ohio State, who has been embarrassed during the past two BCS title games, who is ever any good? Yes, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and Penn State tend to have some ten win seasons, but not on a consistent basis.
Even when the teams do they are defeated soundly by the top teams from other BCS conferences. What cements the Big Ten at number four on this list is the fact that the conference is made up if a bunch of underachieving teams, like Iowa, Purdue, Michigan State, Indiana, and Minnesota, who always hover around .500. At least they have Northwestern to keep the conference’s APR higher.
5. Big East: The top of the Big East is pretty strong with West Virginia, South Florida, and Rutgers, among the nation’s top twenty-five teams, and the Mountaineers are actually national title contenders. What hurts the conference is the mediocrity that exists in the middle, as Connecticut, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Syracuse have posted sub par seasons in recent years.
6. ACC: Great basketball conference, terrible football conference. The league’s best team in 2006 was Wake Forest, a tiny school who should never win the conference, and the 2007 champion was Virginia Tech, who was trounced in the Orange Bowl by Kansas. Florida State and Miami have continued to struggle over the past few seasons, and many of the conference’s teams tend to float around .500.
Best of the rest…7. Mountain West Conference
8. WAC
9. Conference USA
10. MAC
11. Independent
12. Sun Belt
Similar Posts:
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...1 views
9 so far
Scott on Mon, 18th Aug 2008 15:49
FIrst off, lets get something straight, USC has only one national title, not two ok? LSU has two BCS Trophies, USC Only one, and at the start of the 2003 season, THE BCS Title game was determined by the NCAA to be the National title game, and I am sure that if Pate Carroll could go back and choose between winning the BCS or AP poll, its pretty obvious what he would choose.
Technically USC finished the season #3 behing LSU and runner up Oklanhoma, all the AP did was intentionally give USC the nod in the poll to prove a point that we need a playoff which is why AP bailed out of the BCS that very year. So USC 2003 AP title is a totally fabricated bogus title that writers voted on to politic for a playoff in the future. Hopefully we will all live to see it happen.
Having said that, USC got screwed that year and deserved 100 more times to play LSU in the BCS game in 2003 over Oklahoma.
If you ever visit Ole Miss Stadium, they have a banner in thier stadium that says “2003 SEC West Champions.” Well no they were not. They lost to LSU, and LSU went to SEC Championship game although both teams finished in a tie in the SEC West, LSU won the WEST cause they beat Ole MIss.
This is identical to what USC is doing by recognizing a national championship season in 2003. Right wrong or indifferent, the NCAA recognizes the BCS title game as the national champ and is the final word over USCs “politial media title.”
ACC would be in a tie with PAC 10 as far as I am concerned. PAC10 has only USC and thats about it. Throw in the fact that ACC leads all conferences with number one picks in the NFL draft over the last decade and there is a ton of talent in this conference. USC would kill any ACC team they would play, but any other matchup between PAC10 teams and ACC teams would be prety tight(outside of Duke)
1. SEC and BIG 12 are tops and are the only two conferences with more than two decent programs, at least half of each conference are solid programs. USA TODAY And current AP both have 7 SEC teams in the top 27 overall ranked, compared to six from Big12, these two conferences are the cream of the crop in college football.
3. Big 10( i call it the big11)
4.PAC10 and ACC( USC is obviously
Personally I prefer the Las Vegas Sports Consultants Poll(LVSC) over all of them, they tend to position teams on how they think they will finish the year rather than where they are now.
as of now the LVSC preseason poll for the top 10 as of today is…
1.USC
2.Ohio St
3.Oklahoma
4.Missouri
5.Florida
6.West Vagina
7.Georgia
8.Texas
9.Texas A&M
10.Clemson
11.BYU
12.Kansas
The only thing I will say is crazy about the above is not having LSU in the top 12 at all.
The top offensive and defensive line in the country, returning 14 starters and perhaps one of the best backfields in the nation. I do not know where to put them, but this I know, they would wipe the field with BYU and certianly deserve to be ahead of BYU.
This years national championship game will be
USC vs FLorida.
mfsken on Mon, 18th Aug 2008 16:13
An unbiased blog on Moondog’s sight? Did Tophat Al lock Moondog in his gym locker again?
mfsken on Mon, 18th Aug 2008 16:24
In response to the LVSC poll, I’ve got one big problem.
I realize that Georgia has a tough schedule, toughest in the history of the school with road games against South Carolina, AZ State, LSU, Kentucky, Auburn and home games against Alabama, Tennessee, Vandy, Florida and Georgia Tech.
Assuming there is only one undefeated team this year, I believe that Georgia could lose two games and still play for the BCS championship, due to the toughness of the schedule.
Granted, they will need some help from the voters who vote for the various polls. If I’m a voter, I’m rewarding a team that schedules and plays tough games rather than pad the cash registers with loads of cash on “buy games”.
Joey K. on Mon, 18th Aug 2008 18:52
Sorry but the NCAA has no official national champion in college football. Independent organizations such as the Bowl Championship Series, USA Today/Coaches Poll, and the Assosciated Press crown national champions, not the NCAA. Therefore, since the Assosciated Press has been allowed to crown national champions since the early 20th century, USC was the AP National Champions in 2003, while LSU was the BCS National Champions. The two are two different formulas for crowning national champions. The 6 major conferences have given the BCS preference but the AP is still allowed to crown National champions, which USC did accept back in ‘03.
dan valentine2002@yahoo.com on Mon, 18th Aug 2008 20:27
Thanks Joey K. its funny when you read some jerk off throwing out blanket statements when they dont know what they are talking about. And remember the next season when “lowly cant play agaisnt the SEC Pac 10 nobody ” Oregon State went into LSU and if not for 2 missed extra points and a bogus overtime pass interfernce call Oregon State wins. Funny how USC has played the SEC 4 years running and stoned them each time. I say to all SEC cronies you cant schedule division 1aa schools and be BCS eligable.
NESW Sports is going full time! Headlines, 8/19/2008 | NESW Sports, The Best Sports Videos on Mon, 18th Aug 2008 22:24
[...] You can hate the SEC, but they are still #1 < Moondog Sports [...]
F. C. King Links « Loser with Socks on Tue, 19th Aug 2008 08:32
[...] Jealous often? The Pac 10 blows [...]
Hook'Em on Tue, 6th Jan 2009 17:27
I would like to state that while the SEC may be the toughest conference pound for pound with the Big XII being a close second, being in the SEC is not an excuse for having a bad team i.e., i live in SEC country and whenever i argue with my friend (a Mississippi State fan) about sports he blames thier dismal performances on being in the SEC however when my team (Texas) loses to a team ranked in the top 10 (Texas Tech) i don’t blame the Big XII for being so strong i blame my team for not playing up to par and the opposing team for playing so well. It is not fair that a team like auburn should still be ranked after losing 3 games when a team like texas would be out of the polls if it lost 3 games when this year texas had one of the toughest schedules it has ever seen with Oklahoma, texas tech, oklahoma state, missouri, and kansas not to mention arkansas (who is in the almighty SEC) and a suprisingly competitive Baylor team (thats right Baylor is actually playing decent football)im not saying i hate the SEC its one of the most competitive confrences in all of sports but it should never be an excuse.
Hook'Em on Tue, 6th Jan 2009 17:27
I would like to state that while the SEC may be the toughest conference pound for pound with the Big XII being a close second, being in the SEC is not an excuse for having a bad team i.e., i live in SEC country and whenever i argue with my friend (a Mississippi State fan) about sports he blames thier dismal performances on being in the SEC however when my team (Texas) loses to a team ranked in the top 10 (Texas Tech) i don’t blame the Big XII for being so strong i blame my team for not playing up to par and the opposing team for playing so well. It is not fair that a team like auburn should still be ranked after losing 3 games when a team like texas would be out of the polls if it lost 3 games when this year texas had one of the toughest schedules it has ever seen with Oklahoma, texas tech, oklahoma state, missouri, and kansas not to mention arkansas (who is in the almighty SEC) and a suprisingly competitive Baylor team (thats right Baylor is actually playing decent football)im not saying i hate the SEC its one of the most competitive confrences in all of sports but it should never be an excuse.