| Daily Blog • March 7, 2014 |
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Today is the second part of a series taking a look at which conference is the toughest. Yesterday, 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.”
2013 Non-Conference Records (Bowls Not Included)
| OVERALL | Vs BCS Conf | Minus FCS Wins | |||||||
| W | L | % | W | L | % | W | L | % | |
| SEC | 47 | 9 | 83.93% | 11 | 7 | 61.11% | 34 | 9 | 79.07% |
| PAC 12 | 31 | 6 | 83.78% | 6 | 3 | 66.67% | 22 | 6 | 78.57% |
| BIG 10 | 37 | 11 | 77.08% | 8 | 6 | 57.14% | 27 | 11 | 71.05% |
| BIG 12 | 22 | 8 | 73.33% | 3 | 4 | 42.86% | 16 | 8 | 66.67% |
| ACC | 41 | 15 | 73.21% | 7 | 9 | 43.75% | 28 | 15 | 65.12% |
| AMERICAN | 20 | 20 | 50.00% | 4 | 10 | 28.57% | 14 | 20 | 41.18% |
| SUN BELT | 19 | 21 | 47.50% | 2 | 15 | 11.76% | 13 | 21 | 38.24% |
| INDEPENDENT | 33 | 41 | 44.59% | 11 | 22 | 33.33% | 22 | 41 | 34.92% |
| MOUNTAIN WEST | 20 | 28 | 41.67% | 1 | 17 | 5.56% | 11 | 28 | 28.21% |
| MAC | 20 | 32 | 38.46% | 4 | 24 | 14.29% | 10 | 32 | 23.81% |
| CUSA | 20 | 36 | 35.71% | 5 | 24 | 17.24% | 15 | 36 | 29.41% |
The SEC’s 47-9 overall mark just barely put them past the Pac-12 by a couple of percentage points. However, the Pac-12 had the better % when it came to games against BCS conference teams as they went 6-3. When you take out the wins against FCS teams, the SEC again edged out the Pac-12 by less than 1 percent. For those of you wondering why there is such a discrepancy with the number of non-conference games between the SEC and the Big 12, 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 Pac-12 after going just 13-16 vs the Mountain West from 2008-2012 went a perfect 10-0 vs them last year. The Mountain West overall had a very poor year going just 20-28 overall including a terrible 1-17 mark vs BCS conference teams making them dead last in that category. Finally, the American conference has actually gone a combined 5-2 vs the SEC in the regular season in the last two years.
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.