[dingerbat]

With all the recent chatter from the "talking heads" on TV (and from the print media) about the relative strength of college football conferences, I thought I would take an objective look at the subject. Rather than allow my personal opinion to influence the results (like most of the "talking heads" do), I chose to look at facts (game results) and use a computer-based ranking program to evaluate the six BCS conferences.

I just concluded a rather thorough analysis of the six BCS conferences. I don?t think conferences chould be judged on just one year so I looked at all Div-1A vs Div-1A games (2732 games) from 2003 through 2006, a rather large sample of games. (I wish I could have included 2002 and 2007, for obvious reasons) After evaluating all the games played, I counted how many teams from each conference were in the top 30, using their CURRENT conference. Below is what I found:

TOP 30 TEAMS (Top 25%)
---------------------
Big 10 ? 7 teams
SEC ? 6 teams
ACC ? 6 teams
PAC 10 ? 5 teams
Big East ? 2 teams
Big 12 ? 2 teams
Other leagues/independents ? 2 teams

NEXT 30 TEAMS (Second 25%)
-----------------------
Big 10 ? 2 teams
SEC ? 2 teams
ACC ? 4 teams
PAC 10 ? 5 teams
Big East ? 3 teams
Big 12 ? 9 teams
Other leagues/independents ? 5 teams


Here are the top 30 teams:
TEAM CLASS* INDEX OFF DEF GAMES WON LOST
---- ----- ----- --- --- ----- --- ----
1 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA I 29.3 31.0 5.3 52 48 4 PAC10
2 OKLAHOMA I 22.0 31.0 11.3 53 43 10 B12
3 TEXAS I 20.8 29.9 11.2 50 43 7 B12
4 OHIO STATE I 19.7 30.0 12.8 50 41 9 B10
5 LOUISIANA STATE I 19.5 31.5 14.4 50 42 8 SEC
6 GEORGIA I 19.2 24.7 8.0 50 38 12 SEC
7 MICHIGAN I 17.5 25.8 10.7 50 37 13 B10
8 AUBURN I 16.7 20.0 5.6 47 37 10 SEC
9 VIRGINIA TECH I 15.6 23.8 10.3 48 35 13 ACC
10 LOUISVILLE I 15.1 26.3 11.6 50 41 9 BE
11 FLORIDA STATE III 14.8 21.5 8.6 50 33 17 ACC
12 BOISE STATE I 14.5 31.2 17.1 49 43 6 WAC
13 CALIFORNIA I 14.3 30.1 18.1 49 34 15 PAC10
14 MIAMI (FL) III 14.1 13.6 1.4 49 35 14 ACC
15 TENNESSEE I 14.1 24.0 11.9 49 34 15 SEC
16 WEST VIRGINIA I 13.9 33.0 20.4 47 35 12 BE
17 FLORIDA I 13.6 24.7 13.5 49 35 14 SEC
18 WISCONSIN I 13.2 22.2 10.8 50 37 13 B10
19 IOWA II 12.8 23.4 12.8 48 31 17 B10
20 OREGON II 12.5 31.7 21.6 47 28 19 PAC10
21 PENN STATE II 11.7 20.2 10.1 47 27 20 B10
22 NOTRE DAME I 11.6 28.5 19.7 49 30 19 IND
23 OREGON STATE I 11.6 23.2 14.1 47 27 20 PAC10
24 ARIZONA STATE II 11.3 24.0 14.9 47 25 22 PAC10
25 BOSTON COLLEGE I 10.7 27.3 17.9 48 33 15 ACC
26 GEORGIA TECH II 10.4 27.3 18.8 49 28 21 ACC
27 ARKANSAS I 10.3 25.8 17.0 47 26 21 SEC
28 MARYLAND III 10.1 20.7 12.0 46 27 19 ACC
29 MINNESOTA II 9.3 24.7 16.8 48 28 20 B10
30 PURDUE II 9.3 22.4 14.8 49 28 21 B10
* Class denotes in which quartile the team finished 2006

The conclusion I drew was that there was NO dominant conference during that 4-year period. Perhaps the Big 10, SEC, ACC, and PAC 10 were slightly ahead of the Big East and the Big 12.

If I had included both 2002 and 2007, I think Ohio State might have been #1 on the list since they have been 23-0 (so far) during those two years.