Top Conferences For 2008?

In recent years the SEC has been proclaimed the best conference in the country, and every year it seems like there is a different conference that is being discussed as the challenger to the SEC.  It is very hard to argue that any conference can possibly be better than the mighty SEC.  The SEC has the last two national champions (UF, LSU), and the only two time BCS champion in LSU.  Every week in the SEC is a dog fight for every team.  If you take a week off in the SEC then you are going to be going home a loser.  The conference boasts some of the toughest places to play such as Gainesville, Knoxville, and Death Valley, to name a few.  Indeed the SEC is definitely the class of NCAA football because they are tough not just a few years at a time, but every single year. 

This year, however, the SEC has some stiff competition from the Big 12.  The release of the coaches' poll has shown that the coaches feel the same way.  Breaking down the coaches' top 25, the SEC and Big 12 both have 3 teams in the top 10 with an SEC school (Georgia) taking the top spot.  The Big 12 has 5 teams in the top 14 and the SEC has 5 teams in the top 18.  While both schools managed to get 5 teams in the top 25 (the most of any conf. along w/Big 10), they both also managed to get 4 teams a piece receiving votes.  That places both conferences with 9 of their 12 teams in the top 55 teams in the country according to the coaches.  

If you were to average the rankings of the 5 teams in each conference the Big 12's top 5 teams average out 9.6 and the SEC average out to 8.2.  Advantage SEC.  If you were to average out all 9 teams in each conference you would find an average of 26.4 for the Big 12 and an average of 19.6 for the SEC.  Advantage SEC.  If you compare the top ranked team for each conference you find the Big 12 at #4 with OU, and the SEC at #1 with Georgia.  Advantage SEC.

When comparing the two conferences using these rankings you must remember that these are only preseason rankings.  Undoubtedly teams will move up and down and even out of the rankings throughout the season.  The end of the year will definitely be a better time to see who was the best conference, but it is always fun to debate it, so let the debate begin!