College Football: Nation's Best Coaches Reside in SEC

College football reaches every state and county in the nation, and in the south, football is king.  But if you are going to be known as the best football conference in the country, you have to own the best collection of coaches in the country to back it up.

With the recent additions of Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, and now Bobby Petrino, the SEC has become a conference loaded with talent and experience at the head coaching position.  This conference is the toughest in the nation for winning games—and championships.

The SEC boasts five coaches who have won a national title—Phillip Fulmer, Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and Les Miles.  A sixth should be Tommy Tuberville, who has an undefeated season on his resume, but was denied a chance to play in the BCS title game in 2004.

What makes the SEC the best collection of coaches in the country is the way the success is spread out between all the coaches.  They don't have one or two coaches carrying the conference in wins or championships like the ACC and the Big 10.

The five national championships the conference boasts are from five different coaches, and they also have five different coaches that have won National Coach of the Year.

The other reason the conference is so impressive is that the big time coaches currently in the SEC are in their prime of their coaching careers.

Mark Richt, Tommy Tuberville, Nick Saban, Les Miles, Urban Meyer, and Bobby Petrino are all coaches who could coach another 10 years if they wanted to—unlike Bobby Bowden at Florida State or Joe Paterno at Penn State, who some might say are hanging on to their careers too long.

I dare say that the SEC might boast the best collection of football coaches in their prime at one time, in one conference, ever. And with the recent additions, the conference will only rack up more wins and championships in the future.

Here's how I rank each conference's coaching going into the 2008 season.

1. SEC

Overall coaching record: 1,075 wins-595 losses

47 bowl wins, five National Titles, 18 conference championships, five Coach of the Year Awards

Six coaches have over 100 career wins (Tuberville, Spurrier, Fulmer, Saban, Rich Brooks, and Houston Nutt) and three more (Richt, Meyer, and Miles) will surpass that mark in the next three to four years with ease.  In addition, the SEC coaches have racked up their wins in major conference football, rather than lower divisions as others have.

2. ACC

Overall coaching record: 1,179 wins-610 losses

51 bowl wins, two National Titles, 16 conference championships, four Coach of the Year Awards

Although the ACC has more career wins and bowl wins than the SEC, over half of the total wins and bowl wins come from two coaches—Bobby Bowden and Frank Beamer.  You could also make the argument that Bowden is simply taking up space these days in Tallahassee and is no longer in touch with his program—with the recent academic scandal at FSU as the latest example.

When Bowden retires the conference will take a big hit.  But there is a bright future for the ACC with coaches like Butch Davis, Jim Grobe, and Paul Johnson offering hope for the future.

3. Big 10

Overall coaching record: 1,042 wins-563 losses

38 bowl wins, three National Titles, 12 conference championships, eight Coach of the Year Awards

The Big 10 is led by Jim Tressel and Joe Paterno.  The two coaches account for 580 career wins and 27 bowl wins.  Paterno also has seven of the eight COY awards.

Five coaches in the league have not reached the 35-win mark for their careers.  There is reason to be optimistic, with Rich Rodriguez coming aboard at Michigan, Ron Zook getting it going at Illinois, and Bret Bielema keeping it going at Wisconsin.

4. Big 12

Overall coaching record: 639 wins-365 losses

29 bowl wins, two National Titles, 10 conference championships, four Coach of the Year Awards

Bob Stoops and Mack Brown are the only real high profile coaches in the league, and some would say Mack Brown has underachieved with all he's been given.  Stoops hasn't helped himself either by getting blown out in recent BCS games.

Mark Mangino at Kansas and Gary Pinkel at Missouri do seem to be getting it going.  Mike Sherman and Bo Pelini are the new additions that we will wait and see about.

5. Pac 10

Overall coaching record: 682 wins-387 losses

28 bowl wins, four National Titles, 11 conference championships, two Coach of the Year Awards

Pete Carroll obviously leads the way for this conference.  The addition of Dennis Erickson has helped as well.  Jim Harbaugh faces an uphill battle at Stanford, and Tyrone Willingham and Mike Stoops are on the serious hot seat if they don't produce soon.

6. Big East

Overall coaching record: 372 wins-276 losses

Six bowl wins, two conference championships, one Coach of the Year Award

With Rich Rodriguez heading off to Michigan, the Big East took a hit in the coaching ranks replacing him with Bill Stewart, who has one win on his record—albeit a Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma.

Brian Kelly and Greg Schiano seem to be pretty solid right now, and it looks like Jim Leavitt has finally built a solid program at South Florida, but Steve Kragthorpe got off to a rough start at Louisville last year.