*FAN SUBMISION by Jack Holland of San Francisco.*
Courtesy: Bleacher Report
Will the South Eastern Conference (SEC) remain Football the power house of Bowl Series’ and when win yet another National Championship? This season has not been a hot start to pick up number eight in a row, with SEC teams losing out of conference games in the first few weeks. The power points won’t be there this season as in the past because they are not establishing themselves at the beginning of the season by losing to the other power conference schools. The power ranking will not be out this month, but September is already not favoring the SEC. With Florida losing at Miami, Mississippi St loses at Oklahoma St and Georgia losing to Clemson. It comes into perspective when Georgia goes on and then beats South Carolina. Seemingly Clemson would look favorable in comparison to South Carolina or any other team Georgia may beat in conference. Although, these are not bad losses for the SEC, they are wins by other conference teams against them and in turn boosting ratings in their conference. Any conference would look stronger as a whole when their teams are beating the teams from a rival conference. Also, when a team that beat another team from a different conference then loses to an in conference match (such as if Clemson were to lose to Florida St. or any other ACC division match after winning verse Georgia).
To remain superior as a conference, you cannot just win games against one another which the SEC had no problem doing before. Wins like Alabama over Virginia Tech or South Carolina beating North Carolina will not hold enough water to keep the conference afloat. A couple years ago those would have been quality victories and padding the strength of schedule for SEC teams. Part of the reason is likely unfair to college guys don’t get the four game preseason like the pros. We all are aware the home scrimmage against your second string defense is hardly preparation for a bruising season ahead or about the non-contact 7-7 spring camps, it’s good to an extent, but even still only for skill positions. Nonetheless, every game counts in college and the first few weeks’ set up the power ranking for the rest of season by comparing power conferences through an out of conference schedule, playing out of conference teams and seeing how they stack up against one another.
The reason teams like Boise State cannot make a championship game is because they do not play enough quality opponents in conference and must beef up their out of conference schedule and it still won’t have an impact and they still will not get a shot at a title. The teams Boise St. plays in the Mountain West Conference (MWC) are warm up games for conferences like the SEC or PAC 12 who try and lighten up the non-conference games against these teams of the MWC as pseudo preseason to allow their team (especially the freshman) come into real game situations before it really matters. By playing the likes of MWC opponents for easier wins, these schools also play at home most of the time and can pay out less to these teams. Example cases, of Nevada losing at Florida St and then at UCLA or San Jose State losing at Stanford and now traveling to Minnesota. The six power conferences out of league schedule is who Boise St. plays most of their games against (or other like second tier leagues) and tries to run up the score to earn power points and really just shows how much weaker the conference really is.
So which power conference looks good? The PAC 12 has out of conference wins against other power conference teams! On the road UCLA took down Nebraska, ASU survived Wisconsin and Washington beat a ranked Boise State. Only Cal, Oregon St and Washington St have out of conference loses so far. We won’t even mention what happened to a SEC Tennessee squad when they visited Eugene. All I will say is that is a direct contest between the two conferences with the most top 25 teams. Yes, Auburn won against one of the PAC’s worse teams, but neither team will be present during bowl season. SEC has a couple poor teams like Kentucky and Ole miss that act as the Colorado of the PAC. The fact that Oregon St lost to a FCS team does not hurt the conference if Oregon St does not beat anyone of any value in the PAC 12. It looks like they may now finish near last with CAL after watching Washington St take USC, Washington starting off well and of course we know about them ducks and trees. Don’t look too fast; is that the South Division getting stronger? And no, not USC, the rise of UCLA and ASU with marquee wins makes the conference much more even. Then U of A and Utah are still unbeaten, untested but nonetheless unbeaten. Watch out and stay up late if you’re out east because you may just very well be missing out on yet another season of the PAC surfacing two BCS qualifying teams and they might just be meeting up against one another if you know what I mean.
