Big East Basketball vs. SEC Football: Which Conference Is More Dominant?
Southeastern Conference football and Big East basketball are arguably the most prestigious and competitive conferences in their respective collegiate sports.
It's rare to find a week in the AP polls when either conference doesn't have at least half a dozen ranked teams. A weak SEC football or Big East basketball team may struggle to make a bowl game or the NCAA tournament in their current situation, but could easily be a powerhouse in a different conference.
SEC football is one of the highlights of southern culture. These fans will travel anywhere to see their team play.
The atmosphere at Big East basketball games resembles a rock and roll concert. These basketball fans rival even the most passionate football fans in the country.
No sports fan needs to buy a special television package to see these teams play on a regular basis. Every fall Saturday the SEC game of the week, in many cases the game of the week for all of college football, can be seen on CBS. Not enough? ESPN and their sister networks will show at least two or three SEC games throughout the day.
In the middle of winter it seems like a day doesn't go by when a Big East basketball game can't be found on your television set.
So which conference is more dominant? An SEC football fan will say their conference is better, just as a Big East basketball fan would say the same for their conference.
This cross-sports debate will create some passionate conversations from both sides.
Individual Hardware
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Three of the last five Heisman winners have come from the Southeastern Conference.
Darren McFadden was the Heisman runner up in two of those years (2006 and 2007) and Tim Tebow had the first place votes in 2008, losing a close count to Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy. An SEC player has won this prestigious award 11 times since it began in 1936.
Only four players from current Big East schools, have won the John R. Wooden Award for the most outstanding player in college basketball. Compare that to 12 ACC players who have won the award since its inception in 1977. Former St. Johns players Chris Mullin and Walter Berry won the award in consecutive years in 1985 and 1986. However, Darrel Griffith (Dr. Dunkenstein) won the Wooden award in 1980 back when Louisville was part of the Metro Conference.
Kenyon Martin was college basketball's MVP in 2000, but Cincinnati was a member of Conference USA at the time.
So in reality, only two Big East players have been named college basketball's best player.
Six Big East basketball coaches have won the Henry Iba award since 1980.
The Paul "Bear Bryant" Award has been awarded since 1986, with five SEC football coaches receiving the honor.
Seven Big East basketball players have been were named consensus AP All-Americans from 2008-2010.
22 SEC football players were consensus AP All-Americans during that time, including 11 in 2009.
Keep in mind there are more All-Americans in college football.
Advantage: SEC Football
Expansion Fever
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Big East started out as a small seven team northeastern conference in 1979 centered basketball. The conference has now expanded to a 16 team basketball super-conference that stretches far beyond the eastern seaboard. That number will expand to 17 in 2012 with TCU (that addition was obviously made because of their football program) and that number could increase in the near future (Central Florida? Memphis? Boise State?).
Big East expansion is the NCAA's equivalent of the Manifest Destiny. No conference comes close to matching the geographical reach of the Big East (maybe the WAC with Hawaii).
While the defections of Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College to the ACC extremely damaged the Big East's football reputation, their response in the form of a raid on Conference USA transformed them in to an even bigger basketball power.
Although, the Big East gets bashed all the time for their weak football teams, nothing comes close to the basketball competition in this conference. The Pac-10 and Big Ten got a lot of attention in 2010 for their expansion that will give each conference 12 teams and a conference championship starting next season.
The SEC pioneered the conference championship game in 1991 after the then 10 team conference expanded to 12 teams with the additions of Arkansas and South Carolina.
The SEC is likely to stay at 12 teams for now unless conference expansion hysteria returns (something that seems inevitable).
Advantage: Big East Basketball
The SEC's claim as college football's best conference would still be an easy one without South Carolina and Arkansas. While expansion further strengthened the conference's stronghold in the south, this pales in comparison to the geographical reach of the Big East that stretches from Northern Wisconsin down to Tampa Bay and all the way to New Jersey.
The conference name seems like an oxymoron at times, but expansion has been more beneficial to the Big East than SEC.
College To the Pros
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Both conferences have sent superstars to the next level.
Peyton and Eli Manning have each led their team to Super Bowl victories.
Carmelo Anthony is one the NBA's best players and has led the Denver Nuggets to playoffs for seven years and counting.
Emmit Smith is the NFL's all-time leading rusher.
Allen Iverson has won four NBA scoring titles during his career.
At the start of the 2010 NFL season, three of the seven largest feeder schools for NFL players were SEC schools (LSU, Florida,and Georgia.) Also, Alabama is starting to become one of the biggest talent pipelines for NFL rosters.
The Connecticut Huskies are one of the biggest producers of NBA talent, but few Big East schools rank near the top of the list for current NBA players. 18 Big East basketball players have been selected in the first round of the last five NBA drafts (30 first round picks in the NBA draft).
35 SEC football players have been first round NFL draft picks in the last five years (32 first round picks in the NFL draft).
The last time a Big East player was the NBA Draft's top selection was in 1996, the SEC has had five players go number one in the NFL draft during that time.
Advantage: SEC Football
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Conference Showcase
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In recent years, the SEC Championship Game has often been the "de facto" national championship game. There was more hype going in to the Alabama/Florida match up in 2009, than the actual BCS title game itself. This game has been held annually in Atlanta since 1992 and has become one of the premier games in the college football season.
Although this is always an anticipated game, it pales in comparison to the Big East Men's Basketball Tournament. This five day hoops marathon will be having it's 32nd edition in March and was attended last year by the likes of President Clinton and Denzel Washington (I'm not aware of any celebrity sightings at the Georgia Dome for the SEC title game).
A basketball fanatic gets a chance to see every Big East team, giving you multiple opportunities to see the best teams and great match ups (remember the 2009 six-overtime thriller between Syracuse and Connecticut).
Sometimes, the SEC Championship Game doesn't even match up the two best teams in the conference.
What's better for a hoops fanatic than attending 15 games over a five day period in New York City?
Advantage: Big East Basketball
Second Season
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The SEC sent 10 of their teams to bowl games this past season, the most of any conference. They went 5-5 in those match-ups.
The ACC had the second most with nine teams. Also, seven SEC schools won at least eight games this past season.
The Big East has sent a record eight teams to the NCAA tournament the last two years. Last year, the Big 12 sent seven of their 12 teams the tournament.
Several Big East teams that missed the tournament the last couple of years could easily be powerhouses in other conferences. The same could be said about some SEC football teams.
With the Big East as competitive as ever this year, and with the expansion of the tournament to 68 teams, the conference has a chance of sending 11 teams to the Big Dance.
This is similar to how the expansion of the bowl games had allowed the SEC to send more teams to bowl games in recent years.
Advantage: Draw
This one is too close to call. Both conferences have a lot of teams in postseason play each year, but neither has a significant advantage over each other in this category.
Championships
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An SEC football team has won the national title for five years and counting.
Since the BCS began in 1998, the SEC has gone 7-0 in championship games.
There's no telling how long this streak can last for with multiple SEC schools ranked in the top 10 every year in the preseason polls. Nothing better defines this conference's dominance in college football right now than this current streak of national championships.
The SEC has also sent a second team to a BCS bowl game in the last five years, going 3-2 in those games.
Four different Big East schools have made the Final Four since 2006. In 2009; the Big East was widely seen as the best conference. It had four Elite Eight teams (almost had five), two teams in the Final Four, but the championship match up did not include a Big East team.
In the last 10 years, Big East schools have won two national titles (2003 Syracuse and 2004 Connecticut). The conference with the most national titles over the last decade has been the ACC (two from Duke, two from North Carolina, and one from Maryland).
Advantage: SEC Football
The Better Conference
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SEC football is a more dominant conference than Big East basketball.
The gap between the SEC and other football conferences is far greater than the Big East's in college basketball.
The SEC is consistently the best conference in college football and has the competitive division in college football, the SEC West (although the Big 12 North was tougher in 2008).
However, the same can't be said about the Big East every year for basketball. During the 2007-2008 season the Pac 10 was arguably college basketball's best conference. The Big East was by far and away the best conference for the 2008-2009 season. In the 2009-2010 season, it was hard to not call the Big 12 the best basketball conference in the country.
So far, the Big East looks the best basketball conference this season, however many considered the Big Ten the best basketball conference when the season started.
The dominance of SEC football has been shown consistently on the field on college football's biggest stage. In addition, to the amount of their alumni that go on to have successful careers in the the NFL.
Big East basketball has had their fair share of Final Four participants and alumni who became NBA All-Stars, but the SEC's current national title streak is the biggest reason why they are the more dominant conference.
The Winner: SEC Football
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