Wrapping up bowl season
(Written by kencraw)
I do this post every year, comparing the conferences and their performance iin the bowl games. See here for last year’s post and note that I don’t always rate the Pac-10 that highly.
- Pac-10: 5-0
(in order of impressiveness)- USC dismantled Penn St. in a game not as close as the score
- Oregon eventually outpaced Oklahoma state
- Cal out-ran Miami in defensive affair
- Arizona out-muscled Utah runner up BYU
- Oregon State shutdown Pittsburg despite lack of offense
Anytime a conference goes undefeated it is pretty impressive. If there is a flaw here it is that the Pac-10’s schedule was pretty weak. If Oregon could have beaten someone like Penn St. and USC had beat either Oklahoma or Florida, it would have been more impressive.
- SEC: 6-2
(in order of impressiveness)- Florida handled Oklahoma
- Geogia controlled Michigan St.
- Mississippi beat Texas Tech in a shootout
- LSU destroyed Georgia Tech
- Vanderbuilt held off Boston College
- Kentucky survived East Carolina
- South Carolina got blown out by Iowa
- Alabama got thrashed by non-BCS Utah
Some wouldn’t put the Alabama loss to Utah at the bottom of the list arguing that Utah finished #2, but I scoff at #2 Utah. They struggled with Oregon State and BYU. At the same time Alabama went UNDEFEATED in season play in the mighty SEC. Sorry, that’s a big hit no matter which way you slice it to the SEC. Luckily for the SEC, they’ve got some big wins over good teams, particularly the BCS championship game and solid victories over Texas Tech and Michigan St. to balance things out.
- Big-12: 4-3
(in order of impressiveness)- Texas won “last possesion wins” battle over Ohio State
- Nebraska beat Clemsen with 2nd half comeback
- Kansas out hustled Minnesota
- Missouri needed comeback to beat Northwestern in overtime
- OK St. couldn’t keep pace with Oregon
- Oklahoma was slightly overmatched against Florida
- Texas Tech lost a shootout to Mississippi
I felt all season that the Big 12 was the most over-rated conference in the country and the bowl season proved this out. This isn’t to say they’re horrible, just that they weren’t the jaugernaut everyone claimed they were with the most potent offenses in the country. Really, it was the conference with the weak defenses where the only team that was able to have a notable win was Texas who barely beat a fairly impotant Ohio State. Nevertheless, going 4-3, I can’t put them in the bottom half particularly with the tough schedule.
- Big East: 4-2
(in order of impressiveness)- Rutgers asserted themselves over N.C. St.
- West Virginia came back to beat North Carolina
- South Florida destroyed Memphis
- Connecticut handily beat Buffalo
- Cincinnati was no match for Virginia Tech
- Pittsburg could find any offense against Oregon State
4-2 is not bad if it was not for the opponents. 2 of their 4 wins were over non-BCS schools and not particularly good ones at that. The other two wins were over middle of the conference BCS teams. Finally the two losses were to two teams that really should have been beat. Oregon State was in shambles offensively and Virginia Tech is one of the weakest ACC champs in a long time.
- Big-10: 1-6
(in order of impressiveness)- Iowa dominated South Carolina
- Ohio State couldn’t get last possession against Texas
- Northwestern fell short in overtime against strong Missouri
- Penn St. dismantled but resiliant against awesome USC
- Michigan St. couldn’t handle a strong Georgia
- Minnesota had no answer for Kansas spread
- Wisconson destroyed by mediocre Florida St.
Luckily for the Big-10, nobody thought much of them this season so their abysmal post-season record isn’t as troublesome. If the Big-10 has something going for it, it’s that it played all most all of the country’s best teams. With some lighter matchups they might have reached .500.
- ACC: 4-6
(in order of impressiveness)- Florida St. ripped Wisconson
- Virginia Tech. shutdown Cincinnati
- Wake Forest rallied past Navy
- Maryland outscored Nevada
- UNC couldn’t hold off West Virginia
- Miami’s 4th quarter turnover gave game to Cal
- Boston College lost on llate Vanderbilt FG
- Clemson couldn’t stay with Nebraska
- Georgia Tech got destroyed by clicking LSU
- North Carolina St. lost to lowly Rutgers
On the one hand, that’s a lot of losses to a lot of mediocre teams. On the other hand, they did have to play 10 games. Imagine if the Pac-10 had to play 8 or 9 bowl games… there would be some losses on the bottom. Add in that there were a lot of close losses and it’s hard not to feel a little sympathy for the ACC. A few better bounces of the ‘old oblong and they might have been 7-3. Nevertheless I think what sinks the ACC is the lack of impressive wins to offset the many losses. Really, the ACC probably had the weakest bowl schedule, well, except for the Big East’s amazingly weak schedule, and they still couldn’t get to .500.
Overall, there’s not a single conference who’s performance struck me as dominating and deserving of bragging rights. The bottom 3 continue to lose ground on the top 3 conferences. While the Big-12’s performace was nothing impressive, it was a far cry from the performance of the bottom 3. As for the Pac-10, even one loss with it’s weak schedule would have dropped it from the top of my rankings for the bowl games. It’s not like it was the most impressive undefeated run through the bowls. Nevertheless, undefeated is undefeated and without a strong challeng from the SEC who’s record is not exactly spotless even when ignoring the two losses, the Pac-10 gets the nod.