For those of you who say the Pac-10 is as good as the SEC

First of all, your logic is terrible.

The SEC has alot more teams so one would expect there to be more bowl eligible teams. Secondly, you have to look at nonconference schedules and pretty much any DI team can get 6 wins if they schedule it right.

As for the Big Ten, please, if OSU ends up in the Title Game the Big Ten will not get a team in the Rose Bowl because Illinois is the next highest team in the BCS at 18th. It is a watered down league, worse than the Pac-10.

All this being said, I agree, the SEC is still better than the Pac 10.

Speeve wrote:

Pac-10 bowl eligible:

Already eligible

Arizona State (9-1), Cal (6-5), Oregon (8-2), Oregon State (7-4), USC (8-2).

On the bubble

Arizona (5-6), UCLA (5-5).

SEC bowl eligible:

Already eligible

Alabama (6-5), Arkansas (7-4), Auburn (7-4), Florida (8-3), Georgia (9-2), Kentucky (7-4), LSU (10-1), Mississippi State (6-5), South Carolina (6-5), Tennessee (8-3).

On the bubble

Vanderbilt (5-6).

Good job to the Big Ten who managed to also get 10 bowl eligible teams

lol@you...

also, LOL@alabama losing to louisiana-monroe...

The bowls have nothing to do with sports or football. They get cheap college student to work for free. The bowl selection is a popularity contests run by farmers selling oranges, roses, nachos, cotton, and airline tickets to join the boy sex tour with Mayeroff in Thailand.

The SEC is not even on the radar screen. The top for athletic schools are all in the Pac-10. UCLA has 100 team national championshiops. USC, Stanford, and California follow in order with NCs.

I go to Oregon and will be the first to say that SEC is better in football. We are better at basketball and almost everything else.

goducks wrote:

First of all, your logic is terrible.

The SEC has alot more teams so one would expect there to be more bowl eligible teams.

What? Bowl elligibility comes from wins. Number of teams in conference has no bearing on that.

Secondly, you have to look at nonconference schedules and pretty much any DI team can get 6 wins if they schedule it right.

True!

As for the Big Ten, please, if OSU ends up in the Title Game the Big Ten will not get a team in the Rose Bowl because Illinois is the next highest team in the BCS at 18th. It is a watered down league, worse than the Pac-10.

All this being said, I agree, the SEC is still better than the Pac 10.

Is the Rose Bowl a BCS bowl? If not, Big Ten #1 will get that spot. If O$U goes to a BCS bowl, Big Ten #2 moves to #1.

BTW- good work last night against Saint Mary's.

college football is like all ncaa sports, strongest in the west. the mwc, wac, pac-10, etc. play the best football. the bcs, aka 'beauty contest system', is eastern press oriented. there's no ncaa playoff brackets for di-a college football.

Yeah, it was disgusting. I did mean the pac 10 and not Oregon just to clarify.

this year, give the big12 some props......they only have 3 in the top 5.

did you know the polls are essentially a 'fantasy college football' league of their own. the polls are not based on reality. the pollsters have their favorites, normally Norte Dame and Southern California, or their alma mater. you can't rely on polls for any accuracy.

By Jack Carey, USA TODAY

The debate is as old as college football itself: Where are the best teams? With the increased importance of conferences in the latter part of the 20th century, the focus could be narrowed. Over the years, some leagues have grown, some have disappeared, but the argument remains. Deciding which league has been tops might be only a matter of opinion.

But USA TODAY has attempted to take a quantitative look at some comparative factors for the six leagues that have automatic berths in the Bowl Championship Series, starting in 1998. We looked at seven elements we think give a picture of a well-rounded football league. The Southeastern Conference is at the top in five, marking success over the past 10 seasons. Analysts and many fans who were polled agreed.

From week to week this season it has been difficult to determine which college football teams are the best in the nation.

There has been far less debate over which conference has been tops in the Bowl Championship Series era.

Through all the chaos, controversy, unexpected outcomes, pleas for a playoff and tweaks to the BCS formula the past decade, the Southeastern Conference stands as the best Division I-A league.

The SEC has provided a national-high three BCS champs since 1998: Tennessee that season, LSU in 2003 and Florida last season.

That's only one more champ than the Big 12 has produced in the BCS era (Oklahoma in 2000 and Texas in 2005). But the SEC also has had more teams ranked in the final USA TODAY Coaches Poll and has had the most first-round NFL draft picks when compared with the other five BCS-affiliated conferences.

Southern California has won two national titles for the Pacific-10 in the BCS era, with the 2003 crown shared with LSU. USC finished first in the Associated Press rankings that season, which was the only time in the BCS period that the championship was split.

As the 2007 season winds down, the SEC again looks strong. LSU sits atop the BCS standings and is two victories from playing for its second national title in five years.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll favors the SEC, with 30% of respondents saying the conference, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, has been the best of the past decade.

The nationwide survey was conducted Nov. 2-4, asking more than 500 respondents classifying themselves as college football fans.

"Top to bottom, the SEC has been that conference long-term," says Fox and Big Ten Network football analyst Charles Davis, a former defensive back at Tennessee.

"I think back to the late 1990s, when Florida was winning, and Tennessee and Florida were already deciding the SEC East (Division) in September. Then Georgia re-emerged. Then LSU jumped in, and then Auburn jumped in."

ESPN analyst Lou Holtz, who most recently coached at South Carolina, gives credit to the Pacific-10 for scheduling an extra league game when the NCAA began allowing 12-game schedules. He thinks Pac-10 offenses are more advanced than what is typically the case in the SEC.

But in the end, Holtz gives the nod to the SEC as the best.

"The first part of the year, you can be doing good, but you just get beat up week after week in that league," says Holtz, who also coached in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big Ten, the old Southwest Conference and at independent Notre Dame.

"And it's a religion down there, just a passion. We never had an empty seat at (South Carolina). We'd be 11th in the country in attendance and sixth in the SEC."

CBS football analyst Gary Danielson, who played at Purdue, believes the SEC and Big Ten look like the "co-best leagues" over time. But he says the SEC, traditionally, has been stellar.

"The top 30 or 40 teams, in a one-game situation, could beat each other," says Danielson, who earlier in his broadcasting career analyzed games for ABC and ESPN. "But the SEC is tougher with the most NFL players and the most history of (fans) going to games. It's 75 years of tradition, and the away games are brutal.

"It's not that all the teams are always great, but it's that football means a lot. Even Kentucky sells out every game. So it's very important to the kids who grow up in (the SEC's region) and to the fans who go."

Danielson thinks the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10 are on a different level than the ACC and Big East.

ESPN analyst Lee Corso believes the SEC has been the best league of the past decade but says the Pac-10 is tops this season.

"The skill-position players in the Pac-10, particularly at quarterback, make it the best this year," Corso says. Florida's Tim Tebow "is the best quarterback in the SEC, but nobody else is really that close to some of the quarterbacks in the Pac-10."

The Pac-10 "has modern offenses and skilled athletes," Corso says. "But over the long period, the SEC has been dominant because of speed on defense."

As Davis points out, such debates are sometimes not easily resolved, especially considering what has been in evidence in recent seasons.

"Any team can jump up," Davis says. "Look at Mississippi State, Connecticut, Cincinnati — even Rutgers had a chance at the whole deal late last season, and they ended up in the Texas Bowl.

"It's a razor's edge of a difference sometimes."

Breaking down the conferences

Bowl records by conference since '98 season

Big East

25-17 (.595)

SEC

37-31 (.544)

ACC

30-26 (.536)

Big Ten

30-29 (.508)

Big 12

32-35 (.478)

Pac-10

22-27 (.449)

National champions by conference

SEC (3)

Tennessee (1998), LSU (co-2003), Florida (2006)

Pac-10 (2)

Southern California (co-2003, 2004)

Big 12 (2)

Oklahoma (2000), Texas (2005)

ACC (1)

Florida State (1999)

Big Ten (1)

Ohio State (2002)

Big East (1)

Miami, Fla. (2001)

Most first-round NFL draft picks

SEC

60

Big Ten

53

ACC

48

Pac-10

35

Big 12

31

Big East

29

Consensus All-Americans

Big Ten

50

Big 12

43

SEC

40

Pac-10

39

ACC

29

Big East

21

Final USA TODAY coaches' polls

Top 10 teams

Top 25 teams

SEC

18

SEC

45

Big Ten

18

Big Ten

36

Big 12

17

Big 12

33

Pac-10

14

Pac-10

25

Big East

10

ACC

25

ACC

7

Big East

23

It's the last chance for schools west of the Rockies. The Pac-10 and west took over all NCAA sports long ago. The only thing the east schools have is the press and TV companies who nostalgically overrate them. Notre Dame is a joke and the press still can't pull their penis out of Weiss's mouth. I used to feel sorry for those who are so unfortunate that they have to suffer thru the cold and humidity to get an education. I feel more sorrow now than ever before.

When did the west take over? Did you not read that USA Today piece? How good is Pac 10 basketball? Yeah, thought so. DUKE, UK, UNC, Louisville, Indiana, Kansas, all in the east/midwest.

Alan

Skip anything from usatoday. It's only ny propaganda. Always consider the source. It's like asking Bush if the U.S. is winning the war against Islam, Persia, and Arabia. When they get as many NCs as UCLA then email us again.

is freezing in the east like Lance Drugstrong. Come out west if you can afford it. Stanford has won the Sears Cup for the top NCAA athletic program a dozen times in a row. UCLA, USC, Stanford, and California are the top 4 NCAA Athletic Programs.

Arizona State rocks! You beat one ranked team all year... that's now 6-5. I can't wait til Kansas plays a team in the top half of college football and gets blown out.

Skip it wrote:

Skip anything from usatoday. It's only ny propaganda. Always consider the source. It's like asking Bush if the U.S. is winning the war against Islam, Persia, and Arabia. When they get as many NCs as UCLA then email us again.

if you wanna bring basketball into a football topic...then i'll checkmate you. since you mentioned national championships......

top that

I'll ignore your comment and not click the link. Whatever it is it's only one sport. The PAC-10 dominates NCAA athletics just like we saw in Terre Haute. It's just run-of-the mill here and up and down the west coast. Enjoy your freezing winters and 99% humid summers, if you can ;-)