Every week -- starting now, of course -- we here at CFT break down the good, the bad and the downright fashionably hideous (you know who we’re talking about *cough*Oregon*cough*) in each of the 11 Division 1-A conferences. How does your favorite league stack up? Take a gander below.
Also, I realize “conference allegiance” may be an alien term for some of you outside of SEC country, but what fun is it to only stress out about your team when you spend all day concentrating on the success or failure of others?
The Conclusion:
-- Unless the SEC completely implodes as a result of its own competitiveness, it’s hard to see them being anything other than the best conference in college football. Call us homers (we aren’t), call us idiots (okay, maybe a little), but the last five BCS national championships have us backed on this one.
As for actual on-the-field competition, the SEC had a largely soft Week 2 from a non-conference perspective, but Alabama made easy work of Penn State and the two conference games between Georgia-South Carolina and Auburn-Mississippi State were excitingly close.
-- For being on shaky ground, Big 12 football has a stable of good teams. Oklahoma State doesn’t look like it’s missed a beat since offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen left for West Virginia, and Iowa State pulled off a huge win at home against Iowa. It took overtime for Missouri -- probably the Big 12’s fourth/fifth-best team -- to lose on the road in overtime to a jacked up Arizona State.
-- The Pac-12 had a horrific Week 1, but rebounded pretty well in Week 2. Stanford and Oregon took care of business against Duke and Nevada, respectively, and USC notched its first Pac-12 victory over Utah. The Big Ten, on the other hand, failed to take advantage of its spotlight game (PSU vs. Alabama) and had two excruciating losses (Minnesota at home to New Mexico State; Purdue at Rice). Ohio State, the recent class of the Big Ten, struggled against Toledo.
-- In the ACC, Virginia Tech and Clemson made it difficult in wins against East Carolina (a good, but beatable team) and Wofford (a very beatable team). Boston College lost to Central Florida and North Carolina State fell short against Wake Forest. Yikes.
-- But look what we have here, folks: Conference USA sneaking up past the Big East. Considering almost half the Big East used to reside in C-USA, it makes sense that they’re comparable. WVU and Pitt Backyard Brawl’d with Norfolk State and Maine, and the conference’s most convincing win was South Florida over Ball State. B-C-S!
-- As far as the rest of the non-AQ leagues, the WAC didn’t turn up many huge wins, but losses by Fresno State (vs. Nebraska), San Jose State (vs. UCLA), and Hawaii (vs. Washington) were all close for at least part of the game. The Sun Belt scored a nice victory on national television when better-than-most-people-realize FIU defeated Louisville (see “Big East shortcomings” above).
And the MAC? Well... eh...
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