Ranking The Conferences Through 4 Weeks

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After 4 weeks of football, and the majority of the out of conference season under our belt, it's beginning to become clear who the top conferences are in college football this season.  Here we'll rank the conferences up through the first 4 weeks.

1. Big 12........Surprise, surprise.  The idea that the Big 12 and not the SEC could be the dominant conference this season is just starting to gain momentum.  The conference as a whole has posted a 33-8 record in out of conference play.  The most notable victories for the conference include Colorado's overtime victory over West Virginia last Thursday, Missouri's season opening victory over Illinois, and Oklahoma humbling both Washington and Cincinnati this season.  The conference's top 3 teams (Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas) is superior to the top 3 of any other conference.  

Kansas suffered a rough loss at the hands of South Florida on the road earlier in the season, but they are still a force in the national picture.  Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, though unproven, continue to put up huge offensive numbers and could be very good.  To give a good indication on how far the Big 12 has come this season you need not look further than the Baylor Bears.  The notorious doormat of the conference beat up on the Pac 10's worst team Washington State by 28 points and took reigning Big East champion, UCONN, to the wire in Storrs just last weekend.  It hasn't been all roses however for the conference as Texas A&M has looked pathetic under Mike Sherman, and Kansas State looked very bad on the road vs Louisville last week.

2.  SEC....... The conference remains dominant, but they have had games that lead others to believe that they aren't necessarily a notch above the rest of the college football world.  The conference has posted a 25-4 record out of conference with Mississippi State accounting for half the conference's losses.  The most impressive out of conference performances put on display thus far have been the opening weekend coming out party for Nick Saban's Tide when they held Clemson to zero yards rushing in a 34-10 blowout and last weekend's Georgia thrashing over Arizona State in the desert.  As in most SEC seasons it remains a major crap shoot as to what teams will hold up for the course of the season.  As of now Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and LSUseem to be the class of the conference.  

Beyond that, many programs have looked shaky.  Tennessee dropped their opening weekend game to a bad UCLA team.  The following game UCLA got blown out by BYU in Provo 59-0.  Auburn has been overly disappointing this season following last week's loss to LSU.  Perhaps the biggest question mark about the conference comes from the 3-2 Auburn victory over Mississippi State.  At first many SEC fans can write that final off to "the depth of the SEC". The following week, however, Mississippi State got throttled by Georgia Tech from the ACC 38-7.  Despite the question marks, the SEC remains a very powerful conference due it's competitive advantage in coaches.

3.  Big 10........ After the top two conferences there's a significant drop off before the 3rd best conference, the Big 10.  The conference has been fortunate to dodge the embarrassing loss that in recent years has plagued them.  Schools such as Minnesota and Northwestern have remained unbeaten unlike the year before where they were knocked off by North Dakota State and Duke respectively.  So far the Big 10 is 31-8 on the year.  The only teams to beat the Big 10, however has been: Pitt, Cal, USC, Missouri, Oregon, Ball State, Utah, and Notre Dame.  With the exception of Notre Dame all these teams are very competitive and none of the losses were upsets with the exception of the two Michigan losses (Utah, ND).   

Penn State looks like they could be playing for the national championship this season and Wisconsin looks very strong thus far.  The perennial powerhouses have dipped with Ohio State getting blown out by USC, and Michigan feeling the pains of a coaching transition.

4.  Mountain West.........  The conference is refusing to be ignored this season.  It has three teams in the top 25 which is one less than the ACC, Big East, and Pac 10 combined.  BYU, Utah, and TCU all have the ability to be BCS busters this season.  BYU has shown to be the cream of the crop after their 59-0 annihilation of UCLA after the Bruins knocked off Tennessee their previous game.  Utah posted the most impressive victory of the season when they knocked off Michigan in the Big House week 1.  TCU has outscored opponents (Stanford, S.A. Austin, SMU, N. Mexico)  172- 31.  They will be tested this weekend when they square off against Oklahoma in Norman.  

The surprise of the conference however has been UNLV who has knocked off Arizona State and Iowa State both from BCS conferences.  It will be a shame if the conference doesn't get a team aBCS at large bid even if they have a loss on their record.

5. ACC..........  At first it seemed the conference would be battling the Big East for the worst BCSconference, but they have slowly but surely improved over the course of the past couple weeks.  The crown jewel of the conference has been Wake Forest who is 3-0 and has knocked off Mississippi, Baylor, and Florida State to start the season.  Wake Forest, however, is the only unbeaten school in the conference.  

Clemson was humiliated by Alabama on neutral soil in the first week and has played nobody significant since.  Maryland nearly lost to Deleware and then got knocked off by Middle Tennessee State the following week before pulling a shocking upset over Cal in week 3.  The high point of the conference thus far has been the improvement of Georgia Tech, Miami, and Duke through 4 weeks.  Georgia Tech could easily be sitting undefeated if it weren't for their loss to Virginia Tech in Blacksburgh.  The Hokies had an embarrassing opening week loss to ECU, but will get a chance to redeem themselves when they square off with Nebraska in Lincoln on Saturday.

6. Pac 10.........  The Pac 10 looked very strong to start the season, but has faltered ever since.  The one exception to this is USC who has steamrolled Virginia and Ohio State in their first 2 games of the season.  They should be playing for a national title assuming they don't lose to Stanford again.  Cal seemed to be destroying the competition before they dropped a humiliating game to Maryland. Oregon State got shellacked by Penn State in Happy Valley45-14. 

Oregon has fallen on hard luck with the loss of their first, second, and third string quarterbacks.   Their injuries finally caught up to them when Boise State knocked off the Ducks in Eugene last weekend.  The most disappointing team in the conference thus far has been Arizona State who not only got destroyed by Georgia last weekend, but also dropped a game to UNLV the previous week.  

7. Big East........... For the years following the departure of Boston College, Virginia Tech, and Miami from the conference, the Big East remained surprisingly competitive.  Fueled by quality coaching, the Big East quietly knocked off major opponents and remained one of the stronger conferences in the nation.  Their time may now be up.  Almost every team from the conference looks worse this year than in 2008.  The departure of Rich Rodriguez has shown it's immediate effects on West Virginia as they have dropped back to back games to ECU and Colorado.  This was the year Pittsburgh was supposed to finally be the top team in the conference, but they lost their opener to Bowling Green from the MAC.  

Rutger's love affair with Greg Schiano may be waning as the Scarlet Knights have started the year 0-3 with losses to Fresno State, North Carolina, and Navy.  Syracuse is the worst BCSconference team in America.  They're 1-3 with losses to Akron, Penn State, and Northwestern and their only victory coming against Northeastern.  The two undefeated teams in the conference have looked shaky at best with UCONN almost losing to Temple and Baylor in their 4-0 start and South Florida needing overtime to beat UCF.  To the Bulls credit they did knock off a strong Kansas team at home, and will more than likely be the Big East's champ.