(Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)

Week One is almost done—except for an Ole Miss game today against an overmatched opponent and a couple of intra-conference tussles in the ACC (Miami-FSU) and Big East (Rutgers-Cincinatti) Labor Day. 

Conference strength is always a hot topic, especially among the traditional "Big Six" conferences (i.e. automatic BCS qualifiers).

Now is a great time to see how the conferences acquitted themselves. 

The following is a report card of each conference's performance in Week One (only inter-conference games are considered in reaching each conference's grade). 

Winning all OOC games would earn a conference an "A."  I will award a bonus of half a letter grade for each "big win" (i.e. win over a quality OOC opponent), and deduct half a letter grade for each OOC loss—except conferences will be penalized an entire letter grade for an inexplicable OOC loss.  

I will also make some adjustments for close games that should have been won more easily. There is a subjective element in doing so, but I have to go by what I saw more than just wins and losses.

I note that my scoring system will result in easy A's for any conference that schedules easily, but be mindful that my system does punish inexplicable losses and rewards respectable wins. As Misthaufen may note, it is a subjective system with logical parameters and objectively verifiable results. 

ACC - Grade F (Overall OCC record 4-6)

Ten of the ACC's 12 teams played OOC games, with six of them losing.

Some of those losses were expected (or at least explainable, given the quality of the opponent), and some were not.

Big wins: none.

Inexplicable losses: two.

Maryland losing to Cal was not bad, but the margin of victory was. Virginia Tech losing to Alabama was expected by many, but the fact that 'Bama outgained VT by a 3 to 1 margin in total yards, was not. 

Duke and Virginia suffered inexplicable losses at the hands of Richmond and William and Mary, respectively.  Add in the other four losses, and the ACC failed as a whole.

Big 10 - Grade B (Overall OCC record 10-1)

Every Big 10 team played an OOC game, with the conference finishing 10-1. 

Minnesota needed overtime to beat a bad Syracuse team with a basketball player at QB, and Ohio State needed a "pick two" on a two-point conversion to beat a decent Navy team.

Even if I were inclined to consider Navy a quality OOC opponent, I am not giving OSU the extra half a letter grade for its win because the Buckeyes underperformed.

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