Best conference

[VOLNPA]

Big 10 is awful. Wisconsin may have easiest schedule in the country with Penn State not far behind. Nonconference games are a joke. Ohio State is their best team amd got throttled by OU.

Big12 or ACC best in my opinion. Top of Big12 is nasty, but huge fall off after the big 5.

ACC may have most quality depth. Not great, but the Wake Forests and BCs of the world can surprise some people.

I'd still take top 3 in SEC vs any other. Problem is the rest is a steaming pile.

 

[VOLNPA]

Ehh i know you said top 2 but penn st osu and wisky is the best 3 by far

Wisconsin struggles with garbage opponents. Look at their schedule. Worst I've seen in a while.

 

[BIG BOI 23]

Wisconsin struggles with garbage opponents. Look at their schedule. Worst I've seen in a while.

Idk man they've pretty damn consistent under cryst

 

[volfannbama]

Saban effect. He's brought the conference down.

No he hasnt

 

[Lawrence Wright]

The coaching in in the conference has taken a hit

But SEC is still best

Yes to the first sentence, no to the second.

Big 10 is the best top to bottom this season.

 

[VOLNPA]

Idk man they've pretty damn consistent under cryst

Purdue, Illinois and Northwestern games left a lot to be desired for a "legit" team. They are certainly good, but i really doubt they are a threat to amother top 10 team.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

This year so far, it's the PAC.

That's based on win % in Power 5 versus Power 5 cross-conference games.

Their P5-vs-P5 record is 6-3 (67% win rate). Next two conferences are the B10 at 7-6 (54%) and the SEC at 6-6 (50%).

Last year's darling, the ACC, is the worst in 2017, at 5-11 (31%). They're stinking up the joint, after doing so well in 2016. Even the B12, at 4-6 (40%), is doing better than the ACC.

But of course, we're less than halfway through the year's data, given that bowl games are about 50% of all cross-conference matches each season.

So check in again come January, when we'll know for sure which conference did best.

PAC has the early lead, though.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

p.s. There's another objective way to compare the conferences -- check their record against ALL non-conference teams. Include the games against non Power 5.

The argument against this is that a lot of wins against teams "you should beat anyway" are not really impressive. Okay, so your conference won a lot of matches against the likes of Northern Illinois and East Carolina, so what?

I get that.

But consider it from a different angle: there are conferences that LOST more of those games than other conferences did. Right? So it may not be impressive to win 80% of the time, but losing 30% of those games is kinda turrible, right?

So in spite of the imbalance, this is still a valid way of comparing Power 5 conferences. Who more often won the games they shoulda won?

...

Using that metric, the SEC is on top right now, at 34-7 against all non-conference opponents (yes, this includes the Power 5 games). That's an 83% win rate against all foes.

Next best are the PAC at 27-8 (77%) and B10 at 32-10 (76%). ACC has gone 30-12 (71%), while B12 is worst of the Power 5 at 20-10 (67%).

...

So measuring the conferences by P5 vs P5 results is kind of like "who did best" while comparing them using P5 vs All Others results is more like "who sucks least". Something like that.

Putting the two methods together, the PAC and SEC are doing pretty good, the B10 is not too shabby, while the ACC and B12 are looking weak in 2017.