Coach Mike Leach of the Pac 12 and Bob Stoops of the Big 12 both say the bottom half of the conferences are better than the bottom half of the SEC. The table below breaking down the 72 teams in BCS conferences based on www.masseyratings.com show that the bottom half of the six BCS Conferences rank in the same order as the top half of each; SEC (average rating of bottom half is 41st), Big 12 (49th), Pac 12 (70th), Big Ten (just worst than 70th), ACC (78th) and American Athletic (91st), but those will change every week.
“So they’ve had the best team in college football. They haven’t had the whole conference. Because, again, half of ’em haven’t done much at all. I’m just asking you. You tell me,” Stoops told ESPN three months after his Sooners were overrun by Texas A&M and Johnny Manziel (see photo). The Big 12 had a blow at the top of the conference when North Dakota State of the FCS (old 1-AA Division) stunned a K-State team that was expected to contend for the conference title.
Leach’s tweet simply stated, “The bottom half of the Pac-12 is better than the bottom half of the SEC,” a point he can prove Saturday as he brings Washington State to Auburn for a battle of teams that both went 3-9 last year.
The following table breaks down the average ranking for both the top and bottom half of the six BCS conference. The American Athletic Conference holds the Big East automatic bid to a BCS bowl game as the current agreement runs out. Louisville will try to claim the final bid before moving to the ACC, and Rutgers will try to claim it before heading to the Big Ten. The biggest game of the day for the conference will be when Cincinnati hosts Purdue as the conference tries to establish itself as belonging with the Power Five conferences in the new alignment. SMU just missed a chance for a huge win against a Power Conference when they fell 32-31 Friday to Texas Tech.
| Conference | Top Half (Ave. rank) | Bottom Half (Ave. rank) |
|---|---|---|
| SEC | (Ave. 7th) Alabama, Texas A&M, Georgia, LSU, South Carolina, Florida, Vanderbilt | (Ave. 41st) Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi St, Tennessee, Auburn, Kentucky |
| Big 12 | (Ave 12th) Kansas St, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Baylor, Texas | (Ave. 49th) TCU, West Virginia, Texas Tech, Iowa St, Kansas |
| Pac 12 | (Ave. 19th) Oregon, Stanford, Oregon St, USC, Arizona St, UCLA | (Ave. 70th) Arizona, Washington, Utah, California, Washington St, Colorado |
| Big Ten | (Ave. 23rd) Ohio St, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, Northwestern, Michigan St | (Ave. 70th) Penn St, Iowa, Purdue, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois |
| ACC | (Ave. 37th) Florida St, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Miami FL, Pittsburgh, North Carolina | (Ave. 78th) Virginia Tech, NC State, Duke, Virginia, Maryland, Wake Forest, Boston College |
| American Athletic | (Ave 48th) Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers, UCF, SMU | (Ave 91st) South Florida, Connecticut, Temple, Houston, Memphis |
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