Big Ten:
- Florida State 42, Wisconsin 13
- Missouri 30, Northwestern 23 OT
- Kansas 42, Minnesota 21
- Iowa 31, South Carolina 10
- Georgia 24, Michigan State 12
- USC 38, Penn State 24
- Texas 24, Ohio State 21
- Record: 1-6
Big Twelve:
- Missouri 30, Northwestern 23, OT
- Oregon 42, Oklahoma State 31
- Kansas 42, Minnesota 21
- Nebraska 26, Clemson 21
- Mississippi 47, Texas Tech 34
- Texas 24, Ohio State 21
- Florida 24, Oklahoma 14
- Record: 4-3
PAC 10:
- Arizona 31, BYU 21
- California 24, Miami 17
- Oregon 42, Oklahoma State 31
- Oregon State 3, Pittsburgh 0
- USC 38, Penn State 24
- Record: 5-0
SEC:
- Vanderbilt 16, Boston College 14
- LSU 38, Georgia Tech 3
- Iowa 31, South Carolina 10
- Georgia 24, Michigan State 12
- Mississippi 47, Texas Tech 34
- Kentucky 25, East Carolina 19
- Utah 31, Alabama 17
- Florida 24, Oklahoma 14
- Record: 6-2
- National Champion
Even in the SEC’s down years, the conference is still better than the rest.
The Big 12 doesn’t even factor in the argument imo, with their overrated offenses and complete lack of defenses. If those highly touted Big 12 QBs played in the SEC or Big 10, where teams actually have word of the word defense, I bet they still look good, but not like phenoms. When you 3 best teams A) choke in the national championship game, B) barely beat a very pedestrian Ohio State team, and C) lose to Ole Miss, you don’t really have a leg to stand on.
The Big 10, well 1-6 in bowl games and losing both BCS games hurt the already shattered image of the conference. The best team in the conference got slaughtered as well (though in all fairness, how absurd is it that USC gets essentially a home game every year in the Rose Bowl?). I expect the Big 10 to be much better in about 3 years though, with Michigan being reestablished, Iowa back on the rise, and hopefully for their sake a new coach in Wisconsin, I have been saying since his first year that he was absurdly overrated.My bet is he “resigns” within the next few years.
The PAC 10 at least can make a case, I suppose, but not a very good one. They stepped it up in bowl season and seem to have some teams getting better and improving. In reality though, they are only slighly better than the ACC in that most of their teams are above average, but only one team is really any good.
The SEC year after year is the best conference in college football. 6-2 in bowl games is solid and for people saying they don’t schedule out of conference, please look up the nonconference slate the last few years. This year had weaker opposition than the last few years, but not through a lack of effort, you can’t control how teams perform ahead of time. For example, I am pretty sure when Utah scheduled Michigan 6 years ago, they didn’t think Michigan would suck this year. But it happened. The reality is that no conference was all that great this year, but the SEC was still the best of the bunch.
Also, historically speaking, with a minimum of 10 BCS games, the SEC has the best winning percentage of all the conferences at .710 (12-5). They also have the most champions, with 5 championships coming in the 11 years of the BCS. In fact, they haven’t lost a title game yet at 5-0 (Tennessee-1, LSU-2, Florida-2). Possibly could have been 6, but we will never know since Auburn got screwed the year they went undefeated. Before anyone says nonconference schedule about Auburn, note that they had the toughest overall strength of schedule out of USC, Oklahoma, and themselves, so that is irrelevant. Imagine when Tennessee and Auburn actually do rebuild and improve (2010 for Tennessee imo, not sure about Auburn, what a terrible fire/hire they made)! SEC supremacy!
