Today is the second part of a series taking a look at which conference is the toughest. Over the weekend I gave you a couple of components that go into my toughest conference rankings including power ratings and also bowl records that emphasize bowl wins over ranked teams. You can read more about those here.

Today, I thought I would give you the overall non-conference records for each conference. Keep in mind, there is not an exact science for picking the toughest conference. You cannot rely strictly on how many bowl wins a conference racks up during the postseason, or on its overall record in non-conference play. Let’s face it, some leagues' non-conference slates are much tougher than others. Conferences can play non-conference games vs FCS or BCS opponents and if you go strictly on overall records, the wins and losses count the same.

In today’s blog I have the overall non-conference record for each conference, their record vs BCS conferences and also their overall record when you take out the conference’s wins vs FCS schools but naturally include the losses since they should be considered “poor losses.”

2012 Non-Conference Records (Not including Bowls)

As you can see the Big 12, not the SEC had the best season when looking at overall non-conference record as their 26-4 (86.7%) record just tops the SEC’s 48-8 (85.7%). Another factor largely going in the Big 12’s favor is their 5-1 record vs BCS schools including a 3-0 mark vs the ACC, which was the best % of all the conferences. The SEC did not fare bad as they did have an above .500 mark vs BCS teams including a 5-1 mark vs the ACC.

When taking out wins over FCS teams, again the Big 12 comes out on top with a 17-4 record (81%) while the SEC is second with a 33-8 record (80.5%). For those of you wondering why there is such a discrepancy with the number of non-conference games between the two conferences keep in mind the SEC has four more teams than the Big 12 and also the Big 12 only plays three non-conference games while the SEC plays four.

A couple of other interesting notes is that the Big 10 came up third best in overall record but did have just a 6-6 mark vs BCS teams including a 1-3 mark vs the Pac-12. The Big 10 also lost three games to MAC schools this past year. The SEC incredibly went 0-3 vs the Big East this past year and lost two games to the Sun Belt!

The Pac-12 and MW usually have several tightly contested matchups each year and this year was no different as the Pac-12 just edged out the MW going a combined 4-3. The Big East had mixed results going 4-4 vs the ACC, 0-3 vs the Big 10 and just 4-4 vs the MAC however, they did again go 3-0 vs the SEC. The MW had a poor year going 0-6 vs the Big 10/Big 12 and went just 6-3 (66.7%) vs FCS competition which was by far the lowest %.

Finally, CUSA arguably had one of their worst seasons in their history after a banner 2011 campaign as they combined for just a 1-23 mark (4.2%) vs BCS schools with Rice’s upset over a 1-11 Kansas team being their only win.

Tune in to tomorrow’s blog when I take a look at how the conferences did in the final polls and also how they will do with total draft picks for the upcoming draft.