BCS Rankings: Conferences That Proved They Are Underrated

Two big name conferences are being severely undervalued. This happens every year. Teams get into conference play and they end up beating each other. 

Then due to the fact that voters don't recognize the strength of their conference, they pay too big a price for beating each other.

These conferences then end up with sterling bowl records and everyone realizes they were undervalued the whole way.

Pac-12

The Pac-12's lack of respect has become evident over the past few weeks. Stanford and Oregon both plummeted after losses to teams in their own conference.

You have an SEC conference where Alabama drops just one spot from No. 2 to No. 3 after a loss to LSU, but a Pac-10 conference where Oregon drops from No. 4 to No. 10 after an overtime loss to USC.

Granted, LSU was No. 1, and USC was No. 18 at the time, but USC has been playing tremendous football.

Their is not enough difference in opponent to justify a difference in dropping five more spots in the rankings.

Then you have a one loss Stanford team that is ranked a spot behind a one loss Virginia Tech team. The ACC does not have as many quality teams as the Pac-12, yet the Hokies are ahead of Stanford despite there being a negligible difference in out of conference schedule.

Oregon, USC and Stanford are all being slighted in the polls. They have paid dearly for beating each other. That makes no sense.

Big Ten

The Big Ten doesn't have a team in the top ten, but they have five in the top 25. How is this possible?

How can a conference be good enough to have five teams in the top 25, but none in the top 10? Michigan State has just one conference loss. They are the closest team to the top ten and deserve top ten consideration.

They have a banner win over Wisconsin, who also deserves top ten consideration. Wisconsin has just two losses on the season, and they have two wins over teams in the top 25.

During their run, Wisconsin has dominated enough to be the nation's fourth ranked team in both points allowed per game, and points scored per game.

Both of these schools have suffered in the rankings because their conferences have not garnered enough respect.