STOP – This data has been updated for the entire season in this entry. Enjoy.
For prior CSRs, check the links at the bottom of this entry. Here are the results as of games completed Saturday, November 10:
Comments on each conference follow, in alphabetical order:
- ACC – No change from prior report. 7 of 12 teams now bowl eligible, 2 teams within reach.
- Big East – Slight increase in OOC win rates. 5 of 8 teams now bowl eligible, 2 teams within reach.
- Big 10 – Slight increase in OOC win rates. 10 of 11 teams now bowl eligible.
- Big 12 – No change from prior report. 6 of 12 teams now bowl eligible, 4 teams within reach.
- Pac 10 – No change from prior report. 5 of 10 teams now bowl eligible, 3 teams within reach.
- SEC – Slight increase in OOC win rate. 10 of 12 teams now bowl eligible, 1 team within reach.
Based on performance to date, on the field, the conference ranking should be:
- Pac 10 – That Cal win over Tennessee doesn’t help the SEC’s case for #1, nor does the West Virginia blow out of Mississippi State…
- SEC – Have you ever noticed that when, say a Kentucky beats an LSU it’s because the SEC is so tough but when another strong, yet not quite top-tier team beats a big dog in another conference it’s because that conference sucks? Didn’t think so. The SEC has an impressive 10 teams bowl eligible and one still in contention to get there. And, credit where credit is due, the SEC has ZERO defeats out-of-conference against DIAA and non-BCS DI competition (in fact, not only could the SEC winner claim the SEC Championship, but the SunBelt too…)
- Big 10 – 10 of 11 teams are eligible to go bowling. Minnesota has no shot this year of joining that group.
- Big 12 – The strength at the top continues, though Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma will beat each other up over the next couple of weeks. The smart money is on Oklahoma, but for some reason, I like Missouri…Up to ten Big 12 teams could be bowl eligible at season’s end.
- Big East – West Virginia and Connecticut are battling for the BCS bid, 5 teams are bowl eligible with another 2 possible.
- ACC – Those BC losses really hurt and Miami is struggling to become bowl eligible. Seven teams are looking at post-season play now and potentially another two could join the party.
- Notre Dame – Tough year to be a Domer fan. Enough has been said, Charlie is recruiting at a high level, but does anyone notice that the players aren’t improving during their tenure in South Bend?
Come back next week for an update of the Conference Strength Report. Prior reports are available below:
- CSR: Through November 3, 2007
- CSR: Through October 28, 2007
- CSR: Through October 21, 2007
- CSR: Through October 13, 2007
- Original Conference Strength Report: Through September 27, 2007
The stats are deceiving. Who outside of the Big 10 (and those remembering the Oregon dismantling of MI and OSU and MI season ending performances end of last year) believes their conference is the best?
The MWC has a 50% win rate over OOC BCS teams (with their bottom 3 teams racking up 6 of the 8 losses, including 4 teams in the top 25 today). The bottom half of the MWC has also lost to top tier WAC and Conf-USA teams, including Boise St. and Hawaii, thus dragging their total OOC non-BCS record to only 63%. Is the MWC a better conference than Big East, Big 12 and as good as SEC?
There’s nothing deceiving about it, the data is what it is. And in fact, though the MWC isn’t included in this analysis, the on-field performance suggests that they are better than some of the bottom tier BCS conferences.
And, on the Big 10, I don’t claim the conference is the best, but I object to characterizing it as weak and use data to support my argument. Also, last year has zero bearing on this year – those players are gone, I don’t want to hear about Ohio State and Michigan’s bowl performances, disappointing as they turned out to be.
This season, the Big 10 has 10 bowl eligible teams, the same as the vaunted and over-rated SEC. We’ll see what the bowl performance says about conference strength during this bowl season. Until then, this is a status report, not a conclusion.
And yes, I will incorporate non-BCS conferences into future updates, but the real world has intruded on my ability to do so at this time.
Thanks for the comment.
First, I appreciate your effort to gather these stats. Second, I do believe that a conference’s strength can only be ascertained by the OOC games (during season or bowls). However, the strength of the OOC teams played should come into account as well, as beating up on lower tier conference teams (SEC seems to take on an inordinate number of DII and lower tier conference teams) can be deceiving.
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