Pac 12 VS SEC - My Take

This debate rumbles on and on. I feel like I have a little bit of a unique perspective having grown up in Pac country and now live in SEC country. I've had a ton of years watching and being a fan of both conferences. So I'm going to try and eliminate the bias just to try and get to some of my own conclusions.

I will tell you this, if you really get down to it I don't know a whole lot of SEC fans that will say they watch a ton of PAC football, sure they catch the occasional prime time match up, but they don't watch all the games. I would say the same thing about my PAC friends.

Let my start by agreeing with my SEC friends, I do believe the SEC is top to bottom the best overall conference in college football. Hard to argue with all the championships and just overall performance in bowl games.

I will now disagree with my SEC friends. I do not believe that the SEC is soooo superior to everyone else that a mid level team would sweep the PAC every year. (yes, I have literally heard that Vandy would win the PAC championship, and more than once.)

SPEED - Us PAC fans are pretty particular when you talk about speed. We've heard it all over that DAT is the fastest in all of college football. SI named him that, College Game Day said that as well. So when I talk about speed I'm not talking about the skill guys out in the PAC. We have a ton. I saw an article recently with some average speeds from D-Line, O-Line, Backers etc broken down by conference. Pretty staggering the advantage the SEC has over the PAC on those levels. Football is not a flat out 100 meter dash. If it were, DAT would never be touched. It is a game of angles. If DAT is trying to make the corner in the PAC and is going against a linebacker with a good angle and a 4.6 40 time he's gone. Same scenario against a backer from the SEC with a 4.5 40 time and the story isn't quite the same. In addition to that the DE in the SEC probably stretched DAT out a step or to further because he's a bit quicker on average.

MATCH UPS - Overall the SEC has an advantage in match ups. If you look at the modern time (since 2000) the series is 12-12 after LSU beat up Washington this year. Let's break down the games a little more.

-In the SEC's 12 wins they were the higher ranked team in 8 of those wins. Looking at the underdog wins we have the following. Last year OR was #3 and LSU was #4 when LSU won the game. #23 TN knocked off #9 CAL back in 2006. There were 2 match ups between unranked opponents won by the SEC.
-In the PAC's 12 wins they were the higher ranked team 7 times. Looking at the upsets again. In 2000 UCLA was unranked when they beat #3 Bama. #8 USC shut out #6 Auburn in 2003. In 2008 unranked UCLA beat #18 TN by 3 pts in OT.
When looking at upsets the Pac is 3-2 over the SEC and while an unranked PAC team has defeated a ranked SEC team twice an unranked SEC team has not defeated a ranked PAC team (say that three times fast). When both teams are unranked the PAC is 2-1 over the SEC.

If you compare the last 12 years there are some things you can point to in the PAC to make a case that we are right there with the SEC. The stat that counts though, is titles. In that same 12 years the SEC has 7 and the PAC has 2. If you dig into the titles further you have FL, LSU, BAMA, Auburn all winning titles. In the PAC you have USC. Oregon has come close but you'd be hard pressed to make an argument over the past 12 years that any other PAC school was up there in that top level. Stanford was pretty good these last couple years under Luck. Look at the overall bowl records and you will again see the SEC's records show they are the best.

It is a shame that the PAC and the SEC can't play a little more frequently so the debate could continue to roll on.

Bottom line for the PAC is if we want the recognition we need to get to winning those games.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad