Last post season, the big ten dominated against the SEC (in large part due to us). This season, we hear the same narrative from ESPN about the weak schedules of the big ten teams and how strong the SEC is.
One of my very favorite advanced metrics to predict how teams would match up on the field is the SP+ rankings. It is much more accurate than human polls.
In human polls, the SEC teams always get a bump of 0.5 wins as they play 8 conference games instead of 9 and most of their teams schedule a scrimmage against an FCS team in place of a 9th conference game.
Back to the SP+:
In spite of weak schedule talk, OSU, Indiana, and Oregon aee at the top of the SP+ rankings.
More surprisingly, the big ten actually has 10 teams in the SP+ top 25 versus nine teams from the SEC.
You would never hear that on ESPN. By the way, SP+ is a much better power ranking than ESPN's FPI index.
The AP voters have 8 SEC Teams in the top 25 versus our 5. The SP+ ranking actually values teams in both conferences higher than human pollers.
To be fair, the big ten does have a few teams ranked very low in the SP+. No way should Wisconsin be number 90 as a big ten team. Come on Luke.
So what do you think? I love seeing 3 big ten teams at the top. Bodes well for another nice run through the playoffs.