SEC, ACC, Big 10, PAC 10, Big 12, Big East, Which Conference Is Better?

While reading articles this summer, something has become more than obvious to me: There is a movement to attempt to keep the SEC out of the BCS Championship Game.

Their logic seems to be that every conference is equal; therefore the team with the best record should play in the championship game.

Of course, this raised my curiosity, and I felt the need to look at these conferences of cupcakes.

I found that the group of teams comprising the modern SEC has been the strongest current configuration of teams in a conference for at least 50 years and likely for all time.

To compare with other conferences, I initially found that the SEC was plainly dominant in average wins per team over each of the last three decades. I then realized that some would claim this was due to the SEC breaking the rules, so I then corrected the equation for games vacated for SEC teams.

Even after doing this there was only one conference that beat out the SEC over one 10-year period by .08 of one point. The SEC either clearly won or tied every other conference throughout the last 30 years.

The SEC had more members with top winning percentages for every time period going back to the invention of football. When a conference has more winning teams and more wins per team, no matter if you look at the last five, 10, 20, or 30 years, it would seem to me that they deserve looking at for every BCS Championship.

There is not any doubt that they play in the strongest conference.

Some of the proof for my findings is listed below.

SEC

Team	Wins All-Time	Wins Last 30 Years	Wins Last Decade
Alabama	792	226	58
Arkansas	658	211	71
Auburn	689	246	87
Florida	654	278	100
Georgia	731	259	98
Kentucky	567	141	50
LSU	709	223	99
Mississippi	615	180	63
Mississippi State	490	155	42
South Carolina	535	173	68
Tennessee	783	259	83
Vanderbilt	556	101	34

The SEC averaged 6.81 wins per team over the last 30 years and 7.12 wins per team over the last 10 years.

How do other conferences compare?

Big Ten

Team	Wins All-Time	Wins Last 30 Years	Wins Last Decade
Illinois	565	158	44
Indiana	444	130	39
Iowa	579	219	80
Michigan	877	264	81
Michigan State	617	183	60
Minnesota	639	149	62
Northwestern	461	123	61
Ohio State	819	275	102
Penn State	811	262	77
Purdue	575	160	67
Wisconsin	613	202	86
Nebraska*	827	295	84

• Will be a member in 2011

Big Ten teams averaged 6.72 wins per team over the last 30 years and 7.03 wins per team per year over the last 10 years.

To give every advantage in this study, the record of teams being added to the conference for 2011 were included. This should give a good indication of how conference hierarchy will be going forward.

Pac-12

Team	Wins All-Time	Wins Last 30 Years	Wins Last Decade
Arizona	552	187	49
Arizona State	549	201	65
California	626	162	71
Oregon	569	207	88
Oregon State	496	131	80
Stanford	562	151	47
UCLA	537	218	67
USC	775	248	102
Washington	658	215	49
Washington State	492	163	57
Colorado*	666	195	58
Utah*	607	211	86

• Will be a member in 2011

The Pac-12 averaged 6.36 wins per team over the last 30 years and 6.82 wins per team over the last 10 years.

To give every advantage in this study, the record of teams being added to the conference for 2011 were included. This should give a good indication of how conference hierarchy will be going forward.

ACC

Team	Wins All-Time	Wins Last 30 Years	Wins Last Decade
Boston College	624	206	88
Clemson	641	235	79
Duke	452	99	19
Florida State	454	270	73
Georgia Tech	672	190	81
Maryland	601	172	71
Miami	553	283	92
North Carolina	647	192	53
North Carolina St.	533	183	65
Virginia	614	198	65
Virginia Tech	668	242	99
Wake Forest	409	145	61

The ACC averaged 6.70 wins per team over the last 30 years and 7.05 wins per year over the last 10 years.

Big 12

Team	Wins All Time	Wins Last 30 Years	Wins Last Decade
Baylor	524	149	34
Colorado*	666	195	58
Iowa State	489	129	55
Kansas	568	151	57
Kansas State	459	180	71
Missouri	610	158	70
Nebraska*	827	295	84
Oklahoma	799	262	110
Oklahoma State	507	178	67
Texas	845	257	110
Texas A&M	665	228	63
Texas Tech	511	195	85

*Losing member in 2011

This conference averaged 6.60 wins per team over the last 30 years and 7.2 wins per team over the last 10 years.

This conference averaged 6.29 wins over the last 30 years and 7.2 wins per year over the last 10 years without the members they are losing in 2011.

Big East

Team	Wins All-Time	Wins Last 30 Years	Wins Last Decade
Cincinnati	542	169	78
Connecticut	New Program	New Program	62 (Less than 10)
Louisville	441	184	83
Pittsburgh	663	186	74
Rutgers	606	143	58
South Florida	New Program	New Program	68
Syracuse	678	192	45
West Virginia	682	228	86

This conference averaged 6.12 wins per team over the last 30 years and 7.02 wins per team over the last 10 years.

There are some factors to be considered in this equation. To be completely fair with these figures, all current teams were used in the figures for a conference; all known future members were also added to these conferences even though the conferences themselves did not exist in some cases during the entire period.

Now let’s take a look at conference members in the top 25 in terms of winning percentage over time. For purposes of being ultra fair, members changing conferences for the 2011 season will count for their current and future conference. Vacated wins by SEC teams were counted against their winning percentage. Vacated wins were allowed for all other teams in other conferences, again to be ultra fair.

Top 25 Members in Winning Percentage

Conference	All-Time	50 years	30 years	20 years	10 years	Five years
SEC	6	7	5	5	5	4
Big 12	4	3	5	5	4	4
Big Ten	4	4	5	5	5	3
ACC	3	4	3	3	3	2
Pac-12	2	4	3	3	4	3
Big East	1	1	1	2	2	3

What is your opinion of this?