I'm Back: Pac-10 Football Is Better Than SEC Football Part Six

One more thing, I am tired of hearing about how USC is the only team that is of any significance in the Pac-10. I don’t want to beat this fact over the head, but the Pac-10 is 9-6 head to head versus the SEC since 2002. Disregarding both USC and LSU from those standings, the Pac-10 is 5-2.

And the SEC fan says, “Well the Pac-10 hasn’t ever played a solid SEC team.” How about in 2006 when USC played Arkansas and beat then 50-14? Arkansas went on to go 7-1 in the SEC and lose in the SEC Championship game that year.

How about last year when Oregon would have won both the Pac-10 and the National Championship had Dennis Dixon not gotten injured. And SEC fans, no, I don’t want to hear that every team has injuries to overcome. He was their starting quarterback, that would be detrimental to any team.

All I face on Bleacher Report is opposition when I write articles claiming that the Pac-10 is better than the SEC. In my series, I faced many comments that were nothing. I presented facts, and the commenter presented a biased opinion. I am going back to these articles and addressing every comment of merit (actually fact-based) that I received regarding the SEC’s superiority.

On Part One, I explained that the Pac-10’s out of conference scheduling is superior to the SEC’s. These are some of the objections I received:

From Liger: “Also, you forget about the most important non-conference games---they're called Bowl Games.” Speaking of that, the SEC really showed its teeth in the bowls. Alabama, an average SEC team (4-4 in conference) squeaked by 6-7 Colorado by 6 points. Kentucky only beat Florida State by a touchdown despite the fact that the Seminoles only had half their team and no starting quarterback. Arkansas got manhandled by Big 12 champion Missouri. Michigan (who got killed by Oregon), beat Florida (5-3 in conference) in the Capital One Bowl. If you want to flex your conference strength from top to bottom, you have to play better than that.

Meanwhile, let me tell you what the Pac-10 did. USC killed Illinois (who beat Ohio State) in the Rose Bowl. Oregon, without Dennis Dixon destroyed South Florida 56-21. I believe that South Florida beat Auburn (5-3 in conference) earlier in the season. California beat Air Force and Oregon State beat Maryland in unexciting games. Unranked Arizona State’s loss to #16 Texas and 6-7 UCLA’s loss to #17 BYU were supposed to be losses, as both were unranked facing a Top 25 opponent.

Last Bowl Season, it was clear to me that the Pac-10 was a superior conference. When Mississippi State can barely hold up their end against UCF, you know it is time to start questioning the SEC.

Then I have gotten many comments about how LSU played Virginia Tech out of conference. Yes, that was one good out of conference game. The issue at hand is not that you played one good team, but if you play good out of conference games on a consistent basis. When you look at the facts, the SEC simply does not.

Then SEC fans such as Liger come out and say: “Clemson (against 2 SEC teams), Florida State (against 2 SEC teams), Texas, WVU, USF, Kansas St, Miami (Fl), Arizona St, Oklahoma St, Louisville, Virginia Tech (played against a top LSU team, by the way), Georgia Tech, NC State, UCLA, and Cal...”

Some of these games are a result of rivalries, such as the Clemson games and the Texas-Arkansas game. This takes nothing away from them, but it does not mean that these SEC teams necessarily would have scheduled them otherwise. The Auburn-WVU matchup is a quality non-conference game as well.

However, I don’t know why SEC fans would mention Florida State as that program is going downhill faster than Lisa Horne’s mother rolling down an incline plane. Same goes for Miami.

And then the rest of the teams on the list: Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Louisville, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State; those teams are put on there as a joke right? Those teams are like a week off in the Pac-10. Let me tell you the bottom-feeder of the Pac-10’s non-conference schedule: BYU, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame. There’s not a team on there that I would not substitute for a Kansas State or Georgia Tech. When you start naming inferior out of conference teams as the best teams you played to make a point that your out of conference schedule is good, you know you have problems.

On to Part 7.