Well, it is that time of the year again. Preseason hype about the best teams in college football, how the SEC is the strongest conference, how the PAC-10 has no contenders other than USC, and how OSU is the team to watch out for and so on. Well, its all so last year.
The truth. No one knows. Inter-conference games are so few and far between, it is impossible to compare teams across conferences. The debates will never end. I’ll address a few but I’m no genius here
SEC plays the strongest schedule, best defense.
The first part is true. There are many good teams and anyone can beat anyone. Then again, on any given saturday, anyone CAN really beat anyone. Despite the schedule, predictably, the best teams in the SEC at the start of the year make it to the bowl games. How is this any different from any other conference then?
The defense bit is relative. If all teams play good defense and (relatively) average offense, then the defensive numbers add up. If you go by the stats of SEC teams against SEC teams, you can see good defensive numbers overall. But what happens when these teams play good offensive teams. The numbers then, don’t look as impressive. But out of conference games are few and far between to make much sense out of these numbers.
PAC-10 plays no defense
I guess this relates to the previous point. PAC-10 puts up some impressive offensive numbers. Its hard of teams to keep the defensive numbers low. So compared to the others these may seem low, but then again, no ones saying the offensive numbers are very high and hence PAC-10 plays the best offense. When PAC-10 plays the SEC, the offensive numbers may not be as good, but then again the defensive numbers might look much better.
OSU/Texes/USC/… whoz better
No one knows. We need more inter-conference games, BCS playoffs etc to really make sense of whoz who and whatz what. For now, the broken system provides little insight with teams left hanging on the sideline hoping to play for the championshop when less deserving teams make it there. No system is perfect, but its clean the current one is far from it.
In conclusion, don’t give me conference statistics. Don’t tell me SEC this, PAC-10 that, Big-10 whatever. I don’t want to hear your skewed theories. Let’s just wait and see what another season brings up. You can bet I’ll be there every Saturday cheering on the Trojans.