Top Football Conferences

The top Football Conferences

After the first couple of weeks of the college football season, I’d like to argue which conferences are the best, and why. I wanted to make the argument because no matter what people think, the strength of the conference has a major impact on whether their champion makes a BCS Championship or not. You can’t go undefeated out of a weaker conference and expect to play in the title game.

I love “Pardon the Interruption” it is one of my favorite shows, but I don’t agree with Michael Wilbon’s opinion that if a team goes undefeated, they ought to get a shot at a National Title. He believes that a team like Boise State ought to have a shot if they go undefeated…I don’t quite agree.

If you reward a team out of a weak conference a BCS Championship, then what stops independent teams like Notre Dame from taking out USC on the schedule and substituting Duke, or removing Boston College for Miami (OH)? The quality of opponents must play a factor because it substantiates greatness of a team.

So what I want to do is rank the conferences in order, from best to… well, not so great. Let’s start:

#1 Conference in College Football: SEC A+

If you have the defending National Champs still ranked at #1, AND a team like Alabama at #4, and Mississippi in the top ten, you have a strong conference. Toss in teams like LSU and Georgia and you have a pretty tough conference. Last year there was a great argument of who was the best conference; the SEC or Big 12, and personally I thought that from top to bottom, the Big 12 was ever so slightly better, but you could not go wrong either way. This year, I put SEC on top, but not by such a large margin.

#2 Conference in College Football: Big 12 A

Personally, if Oklahoma had beaten BYU, I would have made the Big 12 the top conference by a slight margin. But with the injury, I had to put them here, by a close margin. You still have Texas as the #2 team in the nation, Oklahoma is still in the mix, and you have teams like Oklahoma State and Kansas still in the mix. What happened to Texas Tech? Missouri is still on the radar, so you have half the conference making noise, and oh by the way Nebraska is in the top 20 too.

#3 Conference in College Football: Pac-10 B-

I had to think long on this one, because I wonder how strong this conference really is. I mean, one of their teams loses to Boise State at the beginning of the season, and eyes start to roll around when it comes to the true strength of the Pac-10. Sure, USC is good, but with a freshman quarterback, how soon before they lose a game…or even two? But they are the #3 team in the nation, with California in the top 10...but after that, what is there? Oregon State is on one poll, and UCLA got a few votes, but many wonder if this conference can give USC a run. If USC wasn’t in the top 3, I would not have put this conference here.

#4 Conference in College Football: Big 10: B-

It didn’t help that Ohio State lost to USC…it didn’t help that Michigan State lost to Central Michigan, and Michigan beating Notre Dame didn’t really count for so much. But Penn State is in the top 5 and Ohio State is still in the top 25. Iowa just might be able to make some noise in the conference, but we have to wait and see on that. The Big 10 has been getting pushed around lately, and need some key wins to validate their strength, they may have to rely on Penn State to get it done, since Ohio State seems to slip whenever the chips are on the table.

#5 Conference in College Football: Mountain West Conference C+

When you have a “lesser” conference with not one, not two but THREE teams in the top 25, you have to pay attention. This is one of those examples where if any team out of the Mountain West goes undefeated, they ought to have a legit shot at the BCS Championship. When you consider that BYU is in the top 10, TCU is in the top 15 and Utah is just outside the top 15, this is a strong conference. And with decent teams like Air Force and Colorado State, this is a very competitive conference. I say again, if either Utah, BYU or TCU goes undefeated, somebody ought to put them in the BCS Championship. Add on that BYU beat Oklahoma and has Florida State on the schedule, TCU beat Virginia (so what) and plays Clemson, and Utah having Oregon and Louisville, these are hard schedules for a team not considered to be with the “big boys”. This is a good conference, one that could produce an undefeated team.

#6 Conference in College Football: ACC C-

Last year I can argue that top to bottom this conference was one of the most competitive. Only two teams failed to win 6 games, that being Virginia and Duke, and the Cavaliers missed it by one game. But this year I questioned why Virginia Tech was so high in the rankings. They are good, but not THAT good. Florida State could not hold on to it’s ranking after the first game, and there were some VERY poorly played games by Florida State and Maryland.

Lots of people felt that the ACC ought not be considered in the BCS, and rather let teams like Boise State or…ugh…Notre Dame, take their spot in the BCS bowls. I can see their point, but this is still a very tough conference, and I doubt a team like Boise State can run through it like they do their conference. Team for team, this is a very tough conference, but in comparison to the others, they do look kinda…bland. Georgia Tech, Miami, Virginia Tech and UNC are on the top 25...but for how long?

#7 Conference in College Football: Big East C-

At the beginning of the year, NOBODY from the Big East was on the list. How insulting is that when 6 out of the 8 teams won at least EIGHT games? Cincinnati went 11-3 and got no love at the beginning of the year…how insulting is that?

Right now Cincinnati is on the bottom half of the top 25, but no other team is on the list. If Pittsburgh wins another game, they can likely climb into the list, but the entire conference looks very weak, in comparison to the other BCS conferences, and even the Mountain West Conference. I gotta tell ya, if the Big East can’t start pulling somebody out as a power team, they will continued to be laughed at as one of the weakest conferences in college football.

With other conferences like the WAC, Sun Belt, Mid-American and Conference USA, there can be arguments made for a few of those as well. We all like the underdog, and Boise State is certainly one of those, but their conference just isn’t strong enough to be in the top 7. That does not take away from the Broncos wins, but when you look at the body of work in conference match ups, it does count against you.

So as of the second week, these are my top 7 conferences in college football… which are clearly subject to change week by week.