Part three of "Pac-10 Football Is Better Than SEC Football" focuses on the fact that the Pac-10's best is better than the SEC's best.
When it comes right down to it, USC is better than LSU, and they have been for the last decade.
We have all come to know that the key to success in a college football program is sustaining success over years at a time. It not good enough to win one year and have a bad year the next (i.e. Charlie Weiss, Tyrone Willingham).
USC has had the better program over the years and I'm here to tell you why.
First off, let's take an objective look at common opponents of LSU and USC by year, going back to 2002.
2006
USC 50 vs Arkansas 14
LSU 31 @ Arkansas 26
USC 20 @ Arizona 3
LSU 45 @ Arizona 3
2005
USC 70 vs Arkansas 17
LSU 19 vs Arkansas 17
USC 38 @ Arizona State 28
LSU 35 @ Arizona State 31
2004
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USC 28 @ Oregon State 20
LSU 22 @ Oregon State 21 (OT)
2003
USC 23 vs Auburn 0
LSU 31 vs Auburn 7
USC 45 @ Arizona 0
LSU 59 @ Arizona 13
2002
USC 24 vs Auburn 17
LSU 7 @ Auburn 31
LSU and USC had eight common opponents in this time frame, with LSU going 7-1 (including an OT win) and USC 8-0. LSU has outscored their opponents 249 to 151, while USC has outscored opponents 298 to 103.
Not only have the Trojans outscored the Tigers in these common games, they have also given up less points. The Trojans also have a better record against common opponents.
This is the objective side. Now let's take a look at a slightly more subjective side: how each team finished in the AP and Coaches Polls every year since 2002.
USC
Coaches: 2, 4, 2, 1, 2, 3
AP: 3, 4, 2, 1, 1, 4
LSU
Coaches: 1, 3, 5, 16, 1, 6
AP: 1, 3, 6, 16, 2, 6
Both the Tigers and the Trojans have two national titles over these years. However, USC has never finished outside the top four in the country in either poll since 2002. The Tigers have failed to finish in the top four of both polls three out of six years.
USC has established itself as a consistent threat to win and to finish in the top four in the country. LSU is getting there, but has yet to show that it truly can be there every year.
Anyway you look at it, whether it be common opponents or media perception, the USC Trojans are superior to the LSU Tigers.
THE LIST IS BUILDING:
3. The Pac 10's best team is better than the SEC's best team.
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about 1 month ago
yawn.
about 1 month ago
Great.
Now drop down to the Pac-10's second best team. Then go ahead and match that up with the SEC's second best, third best, fourth best, etc.
You seriously took the scores of games against common opponents and added them up, and then you concluded that because LSU lost one game 6 years ago that USC was the clear "superior team."
Finally, how do you think LSU would have done against Stanford last year?
from about 1 month ago
"Finally, how do you think LSU would have done against Stanford last year?"
About the same as USC would have done against Arky or Kentucky last year!
Waitaminute....didn't we beat Arky last time we played 'em?!?
about 1 month ago
USC won the Pac 10 every year that you just mentioned, the SEC has had 4 different champions since 2002 with 6 different teams actually reaching the championship game. my point is pretty much what every SEC fan has been arguing during this series of articles, that the Pac 10 is more like the Pac 1.
about 1 month ago
Wow, these are getting weaker and funnier as I go.
You pick out the Condoms once again as your team of choice against LSU, who was the best team LAST season.
Quick question though, if the Pac-10 was soooooo good, then wouldnt someone else have won the conference since gas prices were around $2?
LSU has more NCs than USC does in that span. Also, 4 of the games that you picked out for comparison are rivalry games for LSU. Arkanas battle for the Golden Boot year in and year out and Auburn-LSU is quite an intense and defensive game.
And you count "anyway you look at it" as common opponents and media perception to have USC better than LSU??? If that was the case, wouldnt USC have played for the title last year??? If that was the case, wouldnt USC have more NCs than LSU??? If that was the case, no one would be arguing that point.
Look, we get the fact that you want to be the SEC judging by these pathetic excuses for articles, so just give up and admit it.
from about 1 month ago
I'm glad someone shares my point of view. I think they're very funny too.
from about 1 month ago
We don't NEED to be the SEC. Why would we? We have a rich tradition that far and away surpasses anything the likes of the "new south" could ever hope to offer. Remember, we've played the SEC and have an unblemished record during the Carroll era. We play whoever they place in front of us and have no control over how these teams perform when playing the rest of their conference.
Face it, the SEC doesnt have a premier team that stands head and shoulders over the rest, this is why there are so many different teams playing for the championship. For that matter, so do the ACC and Big East. They aren't that tough either. Remember when UCLA under Wooden beat everyone else in the PAC -10 so bad they did away with tourneys for over 20 years. That did not detract from the greatness of their teams did it? They still went out and beat the crap outta other conferences didn't they? I grant you that the rest of the PAC-10 is, minor bumps notwithstanding, weak and that USC stands alone in comparison with anyone else.
That said, we will match up and BEAT (yes I said it!) ANYONE in the SEC. I'd bet my kid's college fund on it and wouldn't loose any sleep over it knowing it'd be as safe as betting on the rise in the price of oil!
Put that in yer pipe and smoke it!
from about 1 month ago
Marcus, who said anything about need? Its obvious that any one conference would love to be the SEC right now. The exposure, the teams, the fans, and of course, the money. And I would put my Crimson Tide's tradition up against anything you threw at me and win every time.
And your right that the SEC doesn't have a premiere team, they have a few. This season it looks to be UF and UGA. Last season was LSU and UGA. The year before that was UF and LSU. Give it a year or two and another team will go up there and join them. And why are you complaining about one team not being able to sustain a spot in the title game when we have the last 2 NCs and you have only placed one team in the title game and are 1-1 in such game. There is not one team in the Pac-10 that could make it through the SEC unscathed.
As for the UCLA argument, it has no comparison to USC of today. UCLA was winning National TitleS and set a record for consecutive wins and championships. USC has done neither in this span. They have one title and came no where close to the all-time win streak mark. That UCLA argument is ridiculous. Its actually an insult to Wooden's teams to even try and compare them to the current USC football program.
Finally, when UGA whoops up on ASU Sept. 20, Ill like my money in check form. Pay Pal is too much hassle.
about 1 month ago
To: All SEC supporters
Re: Address non-conference schedule
Ok, could all the pro-SEC voices here please comment on why the non-conference schedule is so weak? Even if you believe nothing tops your Southern Fried Football, couldn't you find better opponents so that there could be more common points of reference between conferences?
Thanks!
from about 1 month ago
Amen
from about 1 month ago
Ok, how many lower level D-1 universities are located out west??? Maybe enough to make a division of a conference. The south has enough of the lower level schools to make up two conferences, plus those guys are always looking for money. The SEC pulls in the highest revenue in the NCAA when it comes to football, partly because its the best conference, becuase you don't get as much money from Bowls if you dont go 7-2. Also, the addition of a 12th game has put some teams in a bind, struggling to find quality opponents who want to play. There are only so many "quality opponents" in football, so if they are already locked up in a match up or their off weeks dont line up, a school is forced to continue to look further and further down the totem pole until they find a school that is open. Sometimes that takes them all the way down to FCS teams. To say the SEC isnt trying is straight laughable considering the teams they are playing this season and have attempted to contact.
about 1 month ago
Pac-10 vs. SEC: Scoreboard, baby!: Speaking of Pac-10 and SEC intersections … those have gone badly for the SEC in other ways, such as on the field. Since the beginning of the BCS Era in 1998, the Pac-10 is 9-6 against the SEC and 5-2 in games played on the West Coast.
from about 1 month ago
The SEC leads the Pac-10 59-37-5 (.609)
from about 1 month ago
Wow, all-time
about 1 month ago
This from the guy who pulled out a 2002 LSU loss as a reason for the entire Pac-10 being better than the SEC. You are going in circles, "Thomas."
from about 1 month ago
2002s a lot different than all-time, it was 5 years ago
from about 1 month ago
Yes, when a different coach and not one player from this year's team was there.
from about 1 month ago
Thomas...You are seriously saying the Pac-1(0) is better than the SEC because USC is better than LSU over a 5 year period? Am I the only one on here that sees how rediclious this is? Is this a joke?
about 1 month ago
point differential against a small handful common opponents is not a really good indicator of which team is better. The score often doesn't tell the story behind the game. A score could be close, but in reality, one team dominated the other. On the other hand, a score could be a blowout but the teams played evenly until late when a few plays dramatically turn in another team's favor.
you obviously do not know the circumstances behind some of those LSU games. In USC's blowout victory's over arkansas, they were playing the first game of the season. LSU and arkansas always play the final game of the regular season. Arkansas was a vastly improved team at the end of each the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
The 2004 game against oregon state was interrupted for over an hour by the heaviest rainfall I have ever seen in over 40 games that I have personally witnessed in Tiger Stadium. Neither team could throw the ball because of the rain and teams were missing tackles left and right because the ground was saturated. it is nearly impossible to win by a large margin in a game like that.
The 2005 game at Arizona State was supposed to be a home game but got moved in the middle of the week to Sun Devil Stadium. Maybe you heard of something called Hurricane Katrina (I am a new orleans area native and was a LSU graduate student at the time. I remember well). That's why it was moved. Many LSU players' families lost homes and loved ones and football was not on their mind. Many players also housed refugees from new orleans in their apartments. The LSU campus, especially near Tiger Stadium, was overrun by The Red Cross and emergency personnel. Practices were canceled. Players were not in good mental shape or peak physical shape in that game. It's a miracle they even won.
from about 1 month ago
Lets bring out the violin for the Tigers...
about 1 month ago
You know what other LSU victory was a miracle? The win over Oregon State the year earlier. 3 missed extra-points by a middle-of-the-pack Pac-10 school that year gives the "Best in the SEC" a run for their money in their precious OT victory. Well done boys in periwinkle!!
Here's the rub. The SEC perpetually schedules an average of 4 cupcakes per team, per year. That's 4 in the win column right off the bat. They then have 8 games against conference foes of which, 2 are gimmies. We are now 6-0, "bowl eligible", and have six actual games in which competition can be expected. Even if a team only wins 2 of those six competitive games (33%), they finish 8-4, are in a bowlgame (money for the SEC), and can tout their final standings in the AP Poll. We're not talking quantum theory here. No more talk about 1) the SECs non-conference record, it's bull. 2) The number of SEC teams in bowl games, it's bull. 3) The number of SEC teams ranked at the end of the season, it's bull!!
from about 1 month ago
Amen
from about 1 month ago
can we talk about the SEC's winning percentage (.571) in bowl games in the BCS era vs. the PAC-10's (.464) or is that bull, too?
from about 1 month ago
I hate to break it to you, but LSU finished outside of the top 25 in 2002 at #31, not exactly the best in the SEC that year. Who knows where the author gets his "facts" from but you guys might want to check some of this stuff out before drawing your own conclusions. And to the author of this nonsense, I know for the Pac-10 you can use the same team every year for these rankings but using LSU every year is a biased way of trying to make your conference look good try using the best SEC team each year since you use the best Pac-10 team. Also, all the talk leading up to stats is about "the past decade." I don't know what they teach you people over there but in the south, the past decade didn't start in 2002. I'm going take the time to look it up right now, but something tells me your little argument might not be supported if you actually used the whole time period you were referring to.
about 1 month ago
1. Appalachian St 1. Virginia
2. Troy 2. Ohio St.
3. North Texas 3. Notre Dame
4. Tulane 4. Another Conference game
Which of these options have the dreaded Tigers chosen? And USC? You guessed it! Hmm...
about 1 month ago
Yes USC is a great football team, and against like opponents they faired better, (hold on, i am making myself sick saying good things about the trojans,) however, the SEC is an overall tougher conference then the PAC-10 by far. At the end of the season, most SEC teams will be ranked, and ranked pretty high, as opposed to PAC-10 teams that, if on the list at all are at the bottom. That's the facts, and this is an unbiased opinion because I despise all of these teams. But if ND went to a conference, which will not ever happen due to the fact we play who we want, I would rather them go to the PAC-10 and win more often then have to play the powerhouse that is the SEC
about 1 month ago
also, I will say, IMO, if USC had to play an SEC schedule for a year, I do not think they would have the same record they have year in and year out in the PAC-10.
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