Clash of the Titans – Big12 v. SEC

This was originally going to be a comment posted on a previous article. However, i ended up wasting too much time on it and decided to give it featured space.

When evaluating the strengths of major football conferences, one game cannot tell everything you need to know. in the wake of a Florida national championship, it has been widely accepted that the SEC established their dominance in college football this year. However, there are still dissenters to this conclusion (Anthony this isn’t aimed at you, I’m aware that you never held this opinion…publicly).

This Kid Understands

That being said, I believe that the SEC was a better conference than the big12 in every measure this year. Their play throughout the year and especially a stellar bowl season set them on a level above the Big12.

For further analysis, lets go hypothetical. Since this will never be determined on the field (with this years teams at least), we have to predict what would happen if the conferences squared off…

Lets say we lined up the SEC and the Big12 in a heads-up series, with each team facing their conference counterpart in terms of overall record. Here is the slate of games in reverse order of final standings:

Note: the rankings were determined on overall W-L percentage before bowl games. this allows teams that had a great season but took a bowl loss (e.g. Oklahoma) to maintain the position they held most of the year. additionally, a team may be moved up or down a position to match a team that they actually played in their bowl (e.g. tech v. ole miss)

Maxi-Tampon Bowl – Boise, ID

• Iowa State (2-10) v. Mississippi State (4-8)

Great Value Douche Bag Bowl – Bentonville, AR

• Baylor (4-8) v. Tennessee (5-7)

Trojan Rough-Riders Bowl – Tampa, FL

• Texas A&M (4-8) v. Arkansas (5-7)

Febreze Bowl – Oklahoma City, OK

• Kansas State (5-7) v. Auburn (5-7)

Oprah Magazine Bowl – Phoenix, AZ

• Colorado (5-7) v. Vanderbilt (6-6)

Charmin Ultra-Soft Bowl – Atlanta, GA

• Kansas (7-5) v. Kentucky (6-6)

Maxim.com Bowl – Las Vegas, NV

• Nebraska (8-4) v. LSU (7-5)

Barack Obama Bowl – Chicago, IL

• Missouri (9-4) v. South Carolina (7-5)

Revenge of the Nerds Collector’s Edition DVD Bowl – Miami, FL

• Oklahoma State (9-3) v. Georgia (9-3)

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl – San Diego, CA

• Texas Tech (11-1) v. Ole Miss (8-4) —SETTLED

Meineke Car Care Bowl – Charlotte, NC

• Texas (11-1) v. Alabama (11-1)

Holiday Inn Express Tournament Championship – Dallas, TX

• Oklahoma (12-1) v. Florida (12-1) —SETTLED

My Scorecard: SEC Wins 9 Games – Mississippi State, Tennessee, Arkansas, Auburn, Vanderbilt, LSU, Georgia, Ole Miss, Florida. Big12 Wins 3 Games – Kansas, Missouri, Texas

Comment to criticize, react, and offer your own scorecards of how this series would play out.

Gotta love the hypotheticals…

sk.

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The Little Twelve?

Yesterday a friend in one of my fantasy leagues said something trying to get a response out of those of us (most in this league) that are from the Midwest and are fans of the Big 12: “I’m pissed off that no one will acknowledge that the Little 12 is far inferior to the SEC” he so sweetly exclaimed.   After a brief cooling off period and some reflection on what it really meant to be the ‘best conference’ in the nation an internal conclusion was reached.  The answer: a complete season.

My sentiments exactly.

Yes the Big 12 was and deserved to be the unanimous choice for best conference during the regular season, but a 4-3 mark by the conference in the most important games of the year, with the unstoppable South division of the group going 1-3 just won’t cut the mustard.  And yes, for all you mathematicians out there the little brother of the division went 3-0 with wins by Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas.  To be fair the Northwestern’s, Minnesota’s and even the Clemson’s (this year) aren’t even in the same ballpark, and a win in OT by Mizzou and 5 point win by Nebraska means the conference I hold so dear was very close to a 2-5 turnout.  Heck, even Texas, one of the biggest brothers barely pulled out a win over a team many thought they would demolish in hopes of claiming a split national championship.

It's okay...the concession stand didn't really run out of nachos.

Alas, (my eyes nearly not trusting what they see appearing on the screen before them) the Big 12 doesn’t deserve the title of the best conference.  Not yet.  Until you can beat a middle of the pack SEC team in a near home game when you were supposed to be the team that was one game shy of the national championship?  Thank goodness they didn’t make it.  If you want to see the definition of no defense look no further than Lubbock, had they prevailed in the mid-November game in Norman they’d have embarrassed the conference against the Gators down in the title game.  The SEC remains strong as the best damn conference in the land, love it or hate it, you have to respect it, at least until somebody proves different for an entire season.

-asm

My apologies to Les Miles.

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