This is a phrase that is often used when talking about the superiority of the SEC as a conference. As in “year-in, year-out, the SEC is the strongest league in college football.”
You hear it a lot. Way too much, in fact.
Now, here’s the thing. The SEC is currently the top conference. It was amazingly good last year and will be amazingly good this year.
But it is not set in stone that the SEC is the default top conference every year, or at least it shouldn’t be. Yet, that seems to be the prevailing opinion among the college football media, year-in, year-out.
To refute this notion, I present to you… the data provided by the indispensable CollegeFootballDataWarehouse.
The CFBDW has a ranking of teams and conferences based on (1) Winning Percentage Points (2) Schedule Points (3) National Championship Points and (4) Big 4 Bowl Points.
For the period 2000-2007, the BCS conferences are ranked as follows (total points is the first bit of data, followed left to right by the previously mentioned totals):
|
1 |
Southeastern Conference |
941.69 |
286.64 |
350.05 |
150.00 |
155.00 |
|
2 |
Pacific-10 Conference |
923.11 |
277.43 |
405.67 |
100.00 |
140.00 |
|
3 |
Big 12 Conference |
860.65 |
285.30 |
330.35 |
100.00 |
145.00 |
|
4 |
Atlantic Coast Conference |
837.01 |
286.51 |
365.50 |
50.00 |
135.00 |
|
5 |
Big Ten Conference |
834.64 |
278.17 |
356.47 |
50.00 |
150.00 |
|
6 |
Big East Conference |
609.62 |
282.21 |
272.41 |
0.00 |
55.00 |
As you can see, the SEC is on top in this decade (941 total points), but it’s not a slam dunk. And, the real reason for the top ranking is due to the SEC having 12 teams to accumulate its points vs. 10 teams for the Pac-10. The Pac-10 (923 points) gets to No. 2 largely on the strength of its schedule, while the SEC is dragged down somewhat by playing the fourth-toughest schedule among the six major conferences. Averaging the total points per team per conference, the Pac-10 averages 92.3 and the SEC averages 78.4.
If you look at the top 25 programs for 2000-2007, another interesting piece of data is revealed:
In the ranking of the top 25 programs for this decade, only 5 SEC teams make the cut. However, the ACC puts 7 teams in there, while the Pac-10 contributes 6. Take this data for what you think it is worth. It certainly isn’t the be-all and end-all of conference rankings, but it is at least an objective method of measuring them. The conclusion I reach: The SEC is a great conference. Great most years. Sometimes, if not often, the best. Always the hands-down best? Nope. Year-in, year-out the best? Not really, not according to the data. So writers, adjust accordingly. |
TrojanWire 
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