Stealing From the Rich

They say Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor.  (In reality, he stole from the govt. (Sheriff of Nottingham) and gave to the poor.  However, we won’t get into all that since this is a college football blog.)  In our case, the poor (ACC and Pac 12 are trying to steal from the rich (Big East and Big 12).  I know, I know, the media says the Big East is terrible, but it’s simply not true when you measure conferences by how they perform on the field, as this objective ranking system does.

This week, the rich got richer in the rankings, while the poor got poorer.  Those poor conferences better hurry up and steal some more teams from the better conferences if they’re going to keep-up.

The Big 12 continues to have  a commanding lead over everyone else, including the mighty SEC.  While the Big East is well ahead of the ACC with their on the field performance, including the head to head which was easily won with Cincinnati destroying NC State.

Just to prove how strong the Big 12 has been this year, since I’ve been keeping these rankings (2007) no conference has had a rank of 1.846 after 4 weeks.  Maybe Colorado going to the Pac 12 wasn’t such a bad loss after all.

Week Four Conference Rankings

1.  Big 12           1.846

2.  SEC               1.482

3.  Big 10          1.021

4.  Big East       0.966

5.  ACC               0.744

6.  MWC             0.708

7.  Pac 12          0.633

8.  C-USA          0.212

9.  MAC             0.023

10. Sun  Belt    -.307

11. WAC            -.583

The Big 12 Conference is pulling away from the pack with only one loss against another BCS conference school.  The SEC lost some points with two losses to BCS Conferences and the log jam for third place last week has cleared up with the ACC holding onto third place alone.  The Pac 12 slipped to seventh this week after a strong showing by the Mountain West Conference which had good wins led by San Diego States blowout of Washington State from the Pac 12.

The Big 12 was able to put distance between them and the SEC because their wins came against BCS conference schools; whereas, the SEC’s wins came against Non-BCS conference schools.  Not even mentioning the SEC’s losses to the Big East and ACC.

It’s interesting to note that some Big 12 schools are wanting to go to the Pac 12 which has never been a strong conference since I’ve been keeping these rankings.  The same could be said for the ACC.  Now we hear that Pitt and Syracuse from the Big East are headed to the ACC.   Sometimes you just have to sit back and wonder why some conferences are seen as darlings, who are weak.  While others, like the Big 12, are scandalized while as a football conference they are very strong.

The good news is, no matter what happens with realignment, it won’t affect these rankings since I rate conferences, and not the teams within the conferences.

Week Three Conference Rankings

1. Big 12           1.782

2. SEC               1.384

3.  ACC             1.041

4.  Big 10         1.000

5. Big East       0.869

6. MWC             0.833

7.  Pac 12         0.689

8.  C-USA          0.440

9.  MAC              -.032

10. Sun Belt     -.454

11. WAC             -.550

Ties and Firsts

The Big 12 currently stands as the best conference in college football, assuming it still exists as of this writing.  The SEC is making its push toward the top, which is where they’re used to being.  While we have a log jam for third place among three conferences.  The Big East took a major dive to one of those three spots, but it truly was a bad week for the Big East.

The news of the century; however, was the performance of the Sun Belt conference, which is now tied for last place with the Western Athletic Conference.  Since I’ve been keeping these rankings I do believe  that’s the first time they’ve not stood alone in the cellar.

The Pac 12 had a good week, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the dismal first week showing.  It was a bit strange not counting the California versus Colorado game as non-conference, but in a strange twist I couldn’t count the game as non-conference and they couldn’t count the game as in conference.  Ah, the beautiful world of realignment.

Now is a good time to go ahead and post the rankings.

1.  Big 12          1.769

2.  SEC               1.555

3.  ACC              0.875

      Big East       0.875

      Big 10           0.875

6.  Pac 12           0.800

7.  MWC             0.545

8.  C-USA           0.529

9.  MAC              0.318

10. Sun Belt      -.333

        WAC            -.333

2011 Week One CFB Conference Rankings

Wow, what a wacky first week of college football!  Wait until you see this weeks rankings.  Surprises all over the place in these rankings that is matched by what took place on college football fields across the nation.  It’s only the first week, but even so, there are two Non-BCS conferences in the top six and the Big East conference is ranked first.

In the midst of the apparent disintegration of the Big 12, they managed to rank second.  The team that left, Colorado, lost to Hawaii from the Western Athletic Conference.  Colorado, now in the Pac 12, didn’t even suffer the worse out of conference lost within the conference, as that dubious honor went to Oregon State.

By the standards of the SEC, even they struggled this week ending up tied for third with Big Ten.  The SEC teams seemed to struggle with teams they usually beat soundly, so could the SEC not be as good as they normally are this year?  Who knows, but the only way to find out is to let the games be played.

All that being said, the biggest shocker for me this week was how well Conference USA played.  They finished the first week ranked fifth!  They have finished ranked in the number nine position since I’ve been keeping these rankings.  Will they finish higher this year?  Things do have a tendency to even out as the season goes on, but this first week has been a fun one to watch.

Below are the current conference rankings.  They have been revised after Sunday’s games, which had an affect in the rankings.   Namely, Conference USA went from fifth to eigth as a result of their two losses against BCS conferences.

1.  Big East   1.750

2.  Big 12       1.555

3.  Big Ten     1.166

      SEC             1.166

5.  MWC         0.666

6.  ACC           0.625

7.  MAC          0.615

8.  C-USA       0.454

9.  Pac 12       0.333

10. WAC         -.857

11. Sun Belt  -1.000

Final 2010 Conference Rankings

The talking heads seem to constantly bash the Big East, who had their worst season since I’ve been keeping the rankings.  However, they still finished ahead of the ACC thanks to a successful bowl season.  Notice the big fall off between fourth and fifth place among the conferences.  However, also notice the BCS conferences all finished in the top six again this year.  One other thing to note – the Big 12 was also bashed by the media this year, but they finished second.  That only goes to show that perception is created by opinion makers with little relation to what actually happens on the field of play.

1.  SEC          1.396

2.  Big 12     1.250

3.  Big 10     1.096

4.  Pac 10    1.017

5.  Big East  0.673

6.  ACC         0.607

7.  MWC       0.452

8.  WAC        0.272

9.  C-USA     0.083

10. MAC       -.490

11. Sun Belt -.769

Final 2009 Conference Rankings

Once again the SEC out performed all other conferences on the field.  The Big East finished a healthy second, followed by the rest of the BCS conferences.  Last year the Mountain West Conference finished fifth, but this year they led the pack of Non-BCS Conferences by finishing seventh.

1.  SEC          1.517

2.  Big East  1.347

3.  Big 10      1.117

4.  Big 12      0.981

5.  Pac 10     0.891

6.  ACC          0.636

7.  MWC        0.625

8.  WAC         0.097

9.  C-USA      -.245

10. MAC        -.263

11. Sun Belt  -.600

Final 2008 Conference Rankings

Once again the SEC finished as the best conference, but the Big 12 was a close second.  However, you’ll probably be as surprised as I was by who finished fifth.  The Mountain West Conference finished ahead of two BCS conferences.  So let’s go ahead and get to the rankings.

1.   SEC          1.298

2.  Big 12      1.290

3.  ACC          1.137

4.  Big East   1.086

5.  MWC         1.051

6.  Big 10       0.083

7.  Pac 10      0.500

8.  WAC          0.095

9.  C-USA       -.035

10. MAC        -.087

11. Sun Belt  -.291