The Pac-10. Best Conference in FBS?
Written by RyanHutch, Monday November 16 2009
A brief breakdown of the college football teams and conferences so far this season.
For the last few years the Pac-10 has been seen as a conference that USC dominates with very little resistance, possibly only losing one or two tough in-conference games. Most just brush it off as an off week for USC and forget about the Pac-10, and move on to other conferences like the SEC and Big 12. This year however, we can see that either the Pac-10 is better than most think, or USC is beginning to fall out. As long as Pete Carroll is coaching the Trojans, I don't think that they'll be going anywhere anytime soon.
So far this year the Pac-10 has six teams who are 6-3 or better. SIX! Not only is that more than half of the teams in the conference, but it is more than any other conference. The Big Ten and Big 12 have four, both the Big East and ACC have five, and even the illustrious SEC has five. The SEC has two more teams in the conference, and yet still have one less team with a 6-3 record.
Another completely overlooked issue is the number of ranked opponents that the top schools play outside of their respective conferences. The top schools in the SEC, I include Florida, Alabama, LSU, and Auburn, have probably the best combined record than the top four teams in any conference. With that being said, between the four of them they only have one game versus a ranked opponent. ONE! Ohio State, Iowa, Penn State and Wisconsin have combined for two. Virgina Tech, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Miami have also accounted for two. Texas, Texas Tech, Nebraska and Ok State combine for three. Taking four of the Pac-10 leaders, Oregon, Oregon State, USC and Arizona, EVERY one of them has a game versus a ranked opponent.
The SEC may have two of the best teams in the country in Florida and Alabama, but outside of those two there are not many teams worth talking about. We've witnessed Georgia and Tennessee fall completely off the map, while Auburn and Ole Miss are only staying afloat due to a very poor out of conference schedule. Only 3 teams have an in-conference record of 4-2 or better. The Pac-10 has 5, and the only conference that comes close is the Big Ten with 4. Every other conference falls short of the Pac-10
The Big 12 doesn't seem to have any team that can even compete with Texas, and while Oklahoma State is still hanging strong, Oklahoma is in complete dissaray without Bradford.
While the Big Ten has four teams with a record of 7-2 or better, the bottom of the barrel teams have not performed as well against solid opponents. UCLA beat both Tennessee and Kansas State, Washington almost beat both Notre Dame and LSU, not to mention beating USC, and ASU almost beat the once ranked Georgia Dawgs. Though Michigan did beat Notre Dame, though middle of the road Gophers got worked by Cal, and even 6-4 Northwestern were beaten by Syracuse. Syracuse whose only other wins were to 2-7 Akron, and a 4-5 Division II school.
Now I'm not saying that it's clear that the Pac-10 is the best, and all others are only backed because of who they are, but I am saying that USC is 7-2, one of the best in the country as always, and Oregon is also 7-2 and looking better than ever. Cal and OSU are also a solid 6-3, and Stanford is 6-3, whose two of three losses came with last minute touchdowns, seem to be establishing themselves as a top 25 program, and lastly Arizona. Right now Arizona is at the top of the Pac-10 with Oregon, and no one had them even on the map when the season began.
One thing that we can take from this season is clear: the Pac-10 is certainly improving, and it is no longer USC's conference to run. Though they still are the team to beat, we see with this season that more and more teams within the Pac-10 are becoming the quality of teams that can beat USC.
When Oregon can beat the USC Trojans and do it convincingly, become immersed in possible national title discussions, then turn around and lose to an unranked Stanford, most will just assume that maybe Oregon isn't as good as we all thought. How the papers should read is OREGON IS OUTSCORED BY AN UNDERRANKED, AND HIGH POWERED OPPONENT. People need to realize that the Pac-10 is one of the best conferences in the league and it is only getting better. When you go down the list almost all the teams in the Pac-10 can compete head to head with any team in any conference, and can come out victorious.
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5 comments
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What makes a good conference is having three teams in the top 10 and having your number 1 and 2 teams in the country from the same conference.
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Again I'm not saying that the Pac-10 is the best. I believe I've made that clear time and time again. All I'm saying is that six out of the ten teams in the Pac -10 are solid teams. I don't think that there is a clear best team in the Pac-10. There may not be a top National Championship quality team in the Pac-10 but there are a large amount of good solid top 25 caliber teams. Just because you may have the best team doesn't mean you have the best conference. That is never automatically true and no one can assume that. That's all I'm trying to prove. I'm not personally saying Pac-10 vs. SEC, I'm only using them as the prime example because they are often regarded as the best and this is not a personal attack against the SEC or its teams. All I'm doing is providing facts that people need to consider when they talk about the better conferences.
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The Point is Ryan, Florida and Alabama are still undefeated and you can't say that for any team in the Pac-10. The SEC is the best because if I'm not mistaken we have won either three out of the last four national championships or four of five and will probably win this year. And quite frankly if you are the best team in your conference, you don't get your doors blown off by a lesser teams in your own conference. Good teams find a way to win and neither Oregon, USC or Stanford have done that this year.
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I'm not saying that they are the best. I'm just saying that they are better than most think. I find it interesting that whenever teams in the SEC beat one another it's because the SEC is good, but whenever another conference does it's because the conference is weak. The SEC always gets a bias in the mass media year in and year out, with a more often than not terrible out of conference schedule so we're never able to establish how they'd play against a Pac-10, Big 12 or even Big 10 team. I'm just trying to prove through the information I have that we need to stop assuming that SEC runs the FBS and no one comes close. We can't forget that Florida is only still undefeated due to some very poor calls, and a bias from the referees, and Alabama is only undefeated because Mt. Cody blocked two field goals. Again I'm not saying that the Pac-10 is the best, I just think we reached a point where we need to stop assuming which conference is best, have to start providing more reasons than the fact that they have big name schools.
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That's not exactly true. Alabama and Florida both played and beaten a ranked LSU. Alabama also beat a ranked Ole Miss team at the time and South Carolina who when Alabama played them, they were ranked also not to mention Va. Tech. Also throw in one of the top passers in the country in Arkansas' Ryan Mallet who UF and Bama but have beaten and also throw in the fact that I think at one point half of the conference was ranked in the top 20 of the NCAA defensively, and you have the SEC in a nutshell. The problem with this whole Pac-10 vs SEC argument is that your two best teams Oregon and USC, have been blown out by lesser opponents. You can make the argument that the Pac-10 is better then the Big 12 this year, but better then the SEC no.