Posted by ESPN.com’s Ted Miller

Just the facts.

The Pac-10 is now 10-6 versus the SEC and is 6-2 in games played on the West Coast since the BCS Era began in 1998.

An SEC fan who will not tip his cap to that is simply a big dummy.

That’s not an insult. It’s not an opinion. Those are not words colored by emotion.

It’s a statement of fact.

To not acknowledge and defer to the most fundamental measure we have as sports fans is to be either stupid of a full of it.

UCLA’s 27-24 victory over 18th-ranked Tennessee even earned a tip of the cap over at Heritage Hall because USC coach Pete Carroll, like many of us on the left coast, is also weary of the SEC mythology of absolute dominance that has been woven far more from passion than substance.

“We hear a lot of stuff from the SEC — I think that’s a great statement that UCLA was able to knock those guys off,” Carroll said. “I don’t know what they’ll say from the other side, but you can’t make a stronger statement. One of their stronger teams got beaten by a first opportunity for a new coach in a new program. It was a great win for UCLA and I think it does make a big statement. I’m glad it happened.”

Now, most Pac-10 fans are clear-eyed. They don’t need to validate themselves by insisting that their conference rules.

They just hate sloppy argumentation. It offends the refined West Coast sensibilities.

Is the SEC the best conference? Sure. Most years.

But the gap is now and has been fairly small.

And the overwhelming, incontrovertible evidence is simply this: 10-6.