BCS Rankings: Why the BCS Always Favors the SEC and Big 12

Since the BCS became college football's method for determining its champion, the SEC and Big 12 have been well represented in the Championship game. 

As a matter of fact, 14 of the 26 teams that have played for the BCS title since 1998 have hailed from the two conferences. The two have faced off against each other three times. 

With a little over a month remaining in the 2011 season, it appears there will be a fourth battle for the National Championship between the two conferences. 

Alabama and LSU are on a collision course for the BCS crown, as well as Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. It would take something unexpected at this point for there not to be an SEC vs. Big 12 matchup in New Orleans in January. 

But, why is SEC vs. Big 12 a trend in the title game? 

For starters, teams from the two conferences are routinely among the top two or three in preseason. Since 2002, both conferences have had at least one team in the USA Today preseason top four, seven times. The other three times, only one of the two conferences had a team in the top four. 

Six out of those seven times, one of the preseason top four teams from the Big 12 or SEC went on to play for the BCS National Championship.

In other words, the initial groundwork is laid out for teams from the SEC and Big 12 before the season even begins. 

On top of that, teams from these two conferences usually have more talent than the rest of the country. 

Texas and Oklahoma, the Big 12's participants in all but one of the conference's BCS title game appearances since 1998, are among the nation's best in recruiting every season. 

Alabama, LSU, Florida and Auburn is a four-headed SEC juggernaut in recruiting and on the field every season. 

In the case of the Bowl Championship Series favoring teams from the SEC and Big 12, the BCS is just doing what the humans and the respective teams tell it to do.