SEC Schedule

First, few if any impressive non-conference wins. Alabama over Clemson is what the league hung it’s hat on all season. We now know Clemson wasn’t much and that Alabama’s defense wasn’t quite as good as billed against the only two high-performing offenses they played. That win was more than offset by the 45 points Georgia gave up losing to Ga. Tech and Vanderbilt’s loss to Duke—yeah, Duke. Furthermore, the SEC went 4-6 overall vs the ACC this season.

Second, the SEC shies away from true intersectional games vs BCS automatic qualifiers. THAT’S THE THING THAT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!! Traditionally, apart from UT and LSU, SEC teams won’t go on the road and play anybody in another time zone. Tennessee was the only team that left its time zone to play a BCS automatic qualifier (an OT loss at UCLA). Florida never left the state of Florida to play a BCS qualifier out of conference (FSU and Miami).

The SEC played 14 games vs BCS automatic qualifiers. The Big 12 played 15. The SEC went 5-9 while the Big 12 went 7-8. It’s probably worth noting that SEC wins were highly concentrated at the top of the conference: Florida (2), Alabama (1), and Georgia (1) account for 4 of the 5 wins. The rest of the SEC went 1-8 against the other BCS conferences. (Where was all the SEC’s immeasurable athletic depth then?) The Big 12 was more balanced in their performance against the big conferences, sporting wins at the top, in the middle, and at the bottom. Oklahoma has 3 of the 7 wins, but Texas has a fourth win, Mizzou has the fifth, the sixth comes from Colorado and the 7th from Baylor.

The SEC played 10 of its games against BCS automatic qualifiers with the ACC (4-6), many of those traditional rivalry games. It played 2 vs the Big East (1-1), 1 vs. the Big 12 (0-1), 1 vs the Pac 10 (0-1), and no games vs the Big 10.

The Big 12 was more balanced, playing 4 games against the ACC (0-4), 5 vs the Big East (2-3), 2 vs. the Big 10 (1-1), 3 vs the Pac 10 (3-0), and 1 vs the SEC (1-0).

If we look at the conference overall, the Big 12 takes on a bigger challenge out of conference than the SEC. The Big 12 played more BCS automatic qualifying conferences in more true road games than the SEC and still had a better record.

And guess what? Although the SEC had the better overall non-conference record (39-9 SEC vs 38-10 Big 12), the Big 12 had a better differential (+986 vs +783 by my calculations). In the conference opponent with the most overlap, the Sun Belt, the SEC had the better record (8-0 vs 5-1), but the Big 12 had the better differential (19.5/g vs 24.3/g).

I’m not even arguing Big 12 superiority. I’m saying stop it with the “mighty, mighty SEC” crap already. It is too, too tired. If OU wins it won’t somehow validate the Big 12. If UF wins it ain’t because “OU has never seen anything like the defenses they play in the SEC.”

The strength of a conference isn’t assessed by what those teams do against each other in conference; it’s what they do outside the conference. This season when the SEC has taken its show on the road, both during the season and after, it has done NOTHING to impress. It’s athletes aren’t categorically any better than the opposition’s. It’s coaches aren’t any smarter. It’s fans aren’t any more knowledgeable. And, it’s cheerleaders aren’t any cuter. The SEC has ONE great team, some good teams, some mediocre teams, and some crappy teams—just like everybody else.

So please SEC fans; pretty please with sugar on top; get off the high horse already and just enjoy the game with the rest of us mere mortals. If you have a serious analysis that lays out clear matchup advantages for Florida please post it. I’d love to see it, because I can’t call this game. I expect a game either team could win by any score. But spare us the “our athletes are just so bloody superior” routine. The rest of us have been watching the games too. It’s just not true. So drop it already.