Pac 10 v SEC: Some more facts

by The VD Special on Sep 4, 2008 3:57 PM PDT

So we out here in the west know how talented the Pac 10 is, but very rarely do we get the respect we deserve. Bruce Feldman wrote an article today on his blog and he had some interesting stuff about the Pac 10 vs the SEC. Check it out:

• More grist for the SEC nonconference scheduling debate. This time from Jon Solomon:

"Besides losing a payday, leaving home means this harsh reality for the SEC: It's pretty mediocre on the road. Since 1998, the SEC is 40-39 in nonconference road games. That mark drops to 24-31 at schools from BCS conferences. The Pac-10, which SEC fans conveniently shoo aside, is now 10-6 this decade against the SEC. Whereas the SEC is 1-6 at Pac-10 schools, the Pac-10 has gone 4-5 at SEC stadiums."

As I said the other day, I do believe that the SEC is the toughest conference in college football. "Believe" being the operative word. And while it is true that the league has won the past two BCS titles, these head-to-head games should carry some weight.

The Heisman Pundit weighed in on this subject recently and raised a valid point.

The opinions expressed in a FanPost are not necessarily those of the California Golden Blogs or any of its authors. However, they are just as important as the opinions of any of the authors. And triply so as compared to TwistNHook!

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Here's how we'll get respect

If someone other than USC wins the National Championship, much less qualifies for a BCS bowl. Two of those wins in SEC stadiums are USC totalling Arkansas and Auburn.

Yes, we play the actual round-robin and play all nine teams. But only Cal ’04 and Oregon ’05 got close, and regardless of injuries, their underwhelming Holiday Bowl performances reinforced stereotypes.

Let’s see Georgia-ASU first. That UCLA-Tennessee game was a battle to the bottom.

by BearsNecessity on Sep 4, 2008 4:18 PM PDT 0 recs

I have a bad feeling that UGA is going to slaughter ASU.

"Save The Oaks: Overthrow Capitalism" said Dumpster Muffin sanguinely

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by TwistNHook on Sep 4, 2008 4:24 PM PDT up 0 recs

I have a GREAT feeling UGA is going to slaughter ASU…

by Spazzy Mcgee on Sep 4, 2008 4:27 PM PDT up 0 recs

I agree. I hate ASU.

by Berkelium97 on Sep 4, 2008 4:43 PM PDT up 0 recs

Well, now that I think about it, I have many friends from Athens. Go Dawgs!

"Save The Oaks: Overthrow Capitalism" said Dumpster Muffin sanguinely

www.CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com

by TwistNHook on Sep 4, 2008 4:54 PM PDT up 0 recs

And who could possibly dislike their drooly, droopy-skinned mascot?

by Berkelium97 on Sep 4, 2008 5:04 PM PDT up 0 recs

He really should be the head coach in the Puppy Bowl.

by BearsNecessity on Sep 4, 2008 5:04 PM PDT up 0 recs

YES!!

He looks like Joe Paterno

by AndBears on Sep 4, 2008 5:16 PM PDT up 0 recs

damn, that outfit he’s wearing is hurting my eyes – it’s like a magic eye drawing.

by bearsglory on Sep 4, 2008 5:20 PM PDT up 0 recs

Well, ok, maybe not belly rubs for all

"Save The Oaks: Overthrow Capitalism" said Dumpster Muffin sanguinely

www.CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com

by TwistNHook on Sep 4, 2008 5:23 PM PDT up 0 recs

Belly Rubs For All!

"Save The Oaks: Overthrow Capitalism" said Dumpster Muffin sanguinely

www.CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com

by TwistNHook on Sep 4, 2008 5:22 PM PDT up 0 recs

I agree....

by The VD Special on Sep 4, 2008 4:31 PM PDT up 0 recs

any game that allows me to see Rudy Carpenter’s face ground into FieldTurf repeatedly will give me a great deal of pleasure.

Pac-10 supremacy be damned.

by bearsglory on Sep 4, 2008 5:03 PM PDT up 0 recs

Don't agree at all with BearsNecessity

That is a completely self-fulfilling prophecy – having an additional team getting into a BCS game is completely an issue of how much “respect” a conference gets (remember we finished behind Texas despite being a far better team on paper in part due to a perception that Texas “deserved” the Rose Bowl more than we did because they had barely missed out on a BCS game several times previously.)

While I agree that it would be great if someone other than USC won the conference – there is little reason to suspect that if USC had been an SEC team, they wouldn’t have won the conference crown 6 years in a row. That argument completely discounts just how good USC has been over the past half decade, while also implying that USC’s dominance means that all the other teams have been greatly inferior. On numerous occassions, that has not been true – off the top of my head Cal in 2004 and 2006, and Oregon last season were arguably pretty evenly matched with USC. Cal was in part victimized by having to play the Trojans on the road both years, while Oregon won and then had the Dixon injury.

Additionally, I fail to see how the Georgia-ASU game is any better indicator than a game like USC-Arkansas a few years back. Ultimately, it will just be one game – there is no reason to draw a major conclusion from it. Even if ASU wins, it is a home game for them.

The trend of the Pac-10 beating the SEC hopefully will not be used as evidence that the Pac-10 is “better” but in fact that conferences are composed of teams, and that arguing that one conference is better is pretty dumb when it is quite obvious that both conferences are pretty good with some obvious exceptions (Ole Miss, Washington State, etc.)

by Tedfordisgod on Sep 4, 2008 5:05 PM PDT up 0 recs

Mmmm. The best way you can probably answer the question of the better conference is this: If you compared the top eight teams in the SEC against the top eight in the Pac-10 this season, it’d go like this.

Florida – USC
Georgia – Oregon
LSU – ASU
Auburn – Cal
Alabama – UCLA
S. Carolina – Oregon St.
Ole Miss – Arizona
Tennessee – Washington/Stanford

On a neutral field, how many of these teams from each conference win?

The whole point the article makes about the Pac-10 doing better in SEC stadiums than vice versa is fairly asinine—it’s a ridiculously short sample size, and there are rarely matchups that are even in terms of talent and expectations (Cal-Tennessee the past two seasons and USC-Auburn are the only ones off the top of my head, maybe ASU-LSU).

As for the thought that USC would probably not win six titles in a row, well, yeah, no one wins six titles in a row in the SEC. Teams replace and replenish on such a cyclical basis that a new favorite emerges almost every year (Georgia this year, LSU last year, Florida the year before, Auburn two years before that, etc.; now Georgia again). The SEC is considered better because these teams have to beat up on each other the entire way. Every conference game is a season.

The fact that USC swept the conference the last six years is a huge sticking point; it shows that no matter what the other Pac-10 teams could put together on any given year, they could not take the mantle from the alpha team. You could argue any of their conference losses were just as much a case of the team beating themselves rather than the other team taking it from them. Cal came the closest in ‘04, UCLA got obliterated in ’05, Cal didn’t look ready in ’06, Oregon got unlucky and ASU was destroyed in ’07. So until someone does, then the Pac-10 will not get the recognition it deserves as long as one school is glory hogging.

The Georgia-ASU argument is to calm down all these nonsensical “Pac-10 better than SEC” posts after that horrid Monday game. If Georgia wins you’ll hear all the same madness from the SEC. Whatever. It’s all talk really.

Now, if you want to argue that Pac-10 coaches are smarter than SEC coaches..well..

by BearsNecessity on Sep 4, 2008 6:54 PM PDT up 0 recs

Agree with that

The point should be that SEC fans need to recognize that just while they are a very good conference, there are plenty of teams from other conferences that are better than ______ (insert Tennessee, LSU, Arkansas, Alabama, etc.).

It has gotten to the point that major websites are doing WEEKLY rankings of the conferences. That is beyond crazy.

The “Pac-10 football” cheer is useful because its sarcasm gets SEC fans to stop talking for at least a few days.

by Tedfordisgod on Sep 4, 2008 10:19 PM PDT up 0 recs