Tweet
I found some fun data to play with to compare football conferences. I used the past 4 years of data (2005-2008) to compare the non-conference records of the BCS conferences, MWC, and WAC.
Neutral field games are not included - which are primarily bowl games, with a smattering of regular season games also being excluded (an oversight - I downloaded the data at work yesterday, and when I got home, I realized I didn't compile the SEC's neutral field games).
Basic summary:
SEC won 80.3% of non-conference games (139-34)
Big Ten won 77.6% (125-36)
Big 12 won 76.6% (128-39)
Big East won 71.1% (108-44)
ACC won 69.9% (121-52)
Pac10 won 64.4% (76-42)
MWC won 55.0% (72-59)
WAC won 43.4% (62-81)
So it appears the SEC is the best, right?
Not so fast. First, consider that less than 1 in 5 (19.7%) SEC non-conference games were played on the road. This is the lowest pct of road games of any of the conferences. The others are:
Big 12 - 24.6% road games
Big Ten - 24.8%
ACC - 29.5%
Pac10 - 34.7%
Big East - 40.1%
MWC - 48.1%
WAC - 51.7%
When we consider that the home team won just under 60% of the games during this period, we would expect the SEC to have a better record. Thus, under the assumption that the conferences are equal, we would expect the SEC to have won 55.7% of their games because of their favorable home schedule, while the WAC would be expected to have a 49.7% winning percentage.
Second, consider that about 1 in 6 (17.3%) of the SEC non-conference games were against lower division teams. This puts them fourth highest in this regard:
Big 12 - 22.2% games were vs. lower division teams
ACC - 19.1%
WAC - 18.9%
SEC - 17.3%
Big Ten - 16.8%
Big East - 16.4%
MWC - 14.5%
Pac10 -11.9%
These are all home games, and 95% of the time are won by the Division 1-A team.
Neutral field games are not included - which are primarily bowl games, with a smattering of regular season games also being excluded (an oversight - I downloaded the data at work yesterday, and when I got home, I realized I didn't compile the SEC's neutral field games).
Basic summary:
SEC won 80.3% of non-conference games (139-34)
Big Ten won 77.6% (125-36)
Big 12 won 76.6% (128-39)
Big East won 71.1% (108-44)
ACC won 69.9% (121-52)
Pac10 won 64.4% (76-42)
MWC won 55.0% (72-59)
WAC won 43.4% (62-81)
So it appears the SEC is the best, right?
Not so fast. First, consider that less than 1 in 5 (19.7%) SEC non-conference games were played on the road. This is the lowest pct of road games of any of the conferences. The others are:
Big 12 - 24.6% road games
Big Ten - 24.8%
ACC - 29.5%
Pac10 - 34.7%
Big East - 40.1%
MWC - 48.1%
WAC - 51.7%
When we consider that the home team won just under 60% of the games during this period, we would expect the SEC to have a better record. Thus, under the assumption that the conferences are equal, we would expect the SEC to have won 55.7% of their games because of their favorable home schedule, while the WAC would be expected to have a 49.7% winning percentage.
Second, consider that about 1 in 6 (17.3%) of the SEC non-conference games were against lower division teams. This puts them fourth highest in this regard:
Big 12 - 22.2% games were vs. lower division teams
ACC - 19.1%
WAC - 18.9%
SEC - 17.3%
Big Ten - 16.8%
Big East - 16.4%
MWC - 14.5%
Pac10 -11.9%
These are all home games, and 95% of the time are won by the Division 1-A team.