It is an argument as old as college football. Who has the best conference? In opinion polls, the vote often shows that football fans believe the SEC is the best football conference. The only true way to judge one conference against another is through head to head competition. The top seven conferences were examined for head to head records against each other in the regular season and bowl games to determine which conference is best. Records verse the Western Athletic, Mid-American, Sun Belt, and Conference-USA were mostly ignored because the top 7 conference feasted on these conferences, compiling a 99 – 17 record (.853)
Non-Conference Records vs. Top Seven Conferences
W – L Pct.
1. Mountain West 10 – 5 .667
2. ACC 15 – 13 .536
3. SEC 11 – 11 .500
4. Big 12 12 – 13 .480
5. Big East 8 – 10 .444
6. Pac 10 13 – 11 .542*
7. Big 10 7 – 11 .389
Mountain West Conference (MWC)
Yes, the Mountain West is the best conference in college football. Funny thing is that they are not a BCS conference and even though they had the only undefeated team (the Utah Utes, 13-0), their conference was not afforded the opportunity to compete for the National Title. They had a record of 6-2 against the Pac 10 and a 2-0 against the SEC. The Utes dismantled the second best team in the SEC, Alabama, 31 - 17. The only conference that had the upper hand against this group was the Big 12 at 1 - 3.
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)
Believe it or not the ACC is the second best conference - top to bottom. They spent much of the year taking turns beating each other, but when they played outside the conference they showed they could compete. Against the SEC they were 6 – 5 and the Big 12, 4 - 1.
Southeastern Conference (SEC)
The all powerful SEC is not as powerful as thought. They do very well padding their records against the bottom four conferences, going 20 – 1 and they play a fast, physical game in conference. Against the best conferences they were a very average 11 – 11. Florida was arguably the best team in college football. No one will ever know for sure because they did not get a chance to play Utah.
Big 12 Conference
The talking heads on television were debating all season long whether the Big 12 was the best conference in football. Does the top conference in football have a record less than .500 against the best competition? No.
Big East Conference
The Big East was another conference with a sub-.500 record against the big boys. Their only bright spot in non-conference play was going 4 – 1 verse the Big 10.
Pacific 10 Conference (Pac 10)
*The Pac 10 was the only conference with a losing record to one of the four bottom conferences; going 3 – 4 against the WAC. Even without that little tidbit of information they were an average conference against the best of the best.
BIG 10
The Big 10 was not good at all this year. The only team that showed up during the bowl season was Iowa. The Big 10 did not post a winning record against any of the other 6 conferences. Maybe they should offer their spot in the BCS next year to the Mountain West Conference.
Many people will take offense to these numbers, but the numbers don’t lie.
Bradley Allen Ritzenthaler - Brad Ritzenthaler
