I know we all absolutely LOVE hearing about this topic....
There are obviously many ways to judge teams and conferences in football and as many opinions about it. And as we continue to hear how Ohio State has become an 'SEC Team' in the B1G, I find it appropriate to take a step back and compare the two conferences side by side - not based on opinions, some person's rankings, or some magical computer formula, but by statistical rankings based on all FBS teams. There is no linear algebra or taking derivatives in these numbers. If team A averaged more passing yards than team B, then team A has a better (lower) ranking.
I am not including names of teams or the conference and the stats shown will only reflect what happened on the field. No playoff rankings or SOS arguments that are influenced by rankings. Just what happened on the field this year. First four stat rankings are from ESPN and next two are from the NCAA. Stars next to records are who each playoff team played from their conference.
Pass Yards | Rush Yards | Points For | Points Against | Total D Rank | Total O Rank | W-L |
50 | 11 | 4 | 23 | 15 | 8 | 12-1 |
119 | 4 | 31 | 13 | 4 | 23 | 10-3* |
39 | 24 | 7 | 12 | 7 | 13 | 10-2* |
93 | 17 | 14 | 49 | 48 | 33 | 9-3 |
124 | 27 | 64 | 34 | 37 | 105 | 8-4* |
53 | 73 | 71 | 41 | 18 | 66 | 7-5 |
74 | 106 | 67 | 83 | 95 | 107 | 7-5* |
62 | 89 | 89 | 92 | 96 | 81 | 7-5* |
52 | 114 | 83 | 108 | 112 | 102 | 6-6* |
73 | 120 | 115 | 8 | 2 | 114 | 6-6* |
112 | 67 | 112 | 28 | 10 | 111 | 5-7* |
78 | 101 | 101 | 53 | 56 | 106 | 5-7 |
121 | 10 | 91 | 102 | 92 | 61 | 4-8* |
103 | 72 | 97 | 98 | 83 | 110 | 3-9 |
Pass Yards | Rush Yards | Points For | Points Against | Total D Rank | Total O Rank | W-L |
22 | 36 | 17 | 4 | 11 | 16 | 12-1 |
96 | 62 | 79 | 26 | 23 | 100 | 10-3* |
36 | 20 | 15 | 10 | 80 | 9 | 10-2* |
89 | 13 | 8 | 25 | 20 | 28 | 9-3 |
30 | 61 | 58 | 1 | 13 | 36 | 9-3* |
64 | 12 | 23 | 60 | 59 | 17 | 8-4* |
116 | 29 | 76 | 3 | 8 | 77 | 8-4* |
12 | 94 | 33 | 71 | 101 | 31 | 7-5* |
107 | 43 | 57 | 24 | 9 | 91 | 6-5* |
21 | 60 | 37 | 93 | 91 | 30 | 6-6 |
66 | 103 | 76 | 40 | 34 | 98 | 6-6* |
99 | 28 | 48 | 15 | 24 | 58 | 6-6* |
61 | 77 | 66 | 94 | 77 | 75 | 5-7 |
108 | 116 | 119 | 106 | 70 | 122 | 3-9 |
I don't know what it means that we are an 'SEC-team' and based on how each conference played this year relative to all FBS schools, I don't know how you define the phrase either, which is why I don't like hearing it.
All this (though virtually meaningless in deciding outcome of the Sugar Bowl) is there just to make you wonder if we are truly looking at one conference being a glorified high school JV league and the other being NFL-lite, as we are led to believe. So go ahead and take a gander. Figure out what conference is what and if there really is as much difference between the two as you think. Take it or leave it. Just throwing some information out there just to have it and kill time until Jan 1.