The Pecking Order

All fans are opinionated, but college football fans are extreme. Take it from me - I’m one of them. Want proof? Check the message boards.

There are more college football fans on those things than any other sport. I just read an article about the Lions new head coach – the top headline on ESPN.com – and noticed that a few hundred people had commented. Then I read about Mark Sanchez – the second headline – and there were more than a thousand comments.

What gives? Why are college football fans so adamant? I think it has a lot to do with the nature of the sport. Everything is based on the opinions of so-called “experts”. They dictate where teams rank, which teams go to bowls, and they have the final say on the bowl-versus-playoff debate.

With everyone else giving their two-sense, maybe the average fan feels left out. Whatever the case may be, fans will continue to argue. And there’s one debate that rages on year after year: the hierarchy of the eleven FBS conferences.

Unlike the polls, the rankings for the eleven conferences are not in writing - they’re imaginary. It’s an informal list that coaches, players, and fans are left to debate from one season to the next.

Some say the pecking order of the conferences doesn’t matter. I disagree. If the public perception of the Mountain West was greater, Utah may be the 2008 National Champions. I’m not saying they should be, but it’s worth considering.

This past bowl season gave us a chance to watch rival conferences play one another. While some were exposed, others made a statement. One thing that hasn’t changed over the last twelve months: the Big Ten’s credibility – or, lack thereof.

Here are my conference rankings. When you're finished reading, give me yours.

1. SEC - After a season full of trash-talk from the Big 12 and its fans, the Southeastern Conference proved to be the nation's best league - again. An SEC team has won the last three Title Games, reminding us that the road to a National Championship starts in the Deep South.

2. Big 12 - Is a good offense really the best defense? Apparently not. Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma State each finished the season ranked in the top ten in scoring. When it came to the bowls, however, each failed to match their season average, and only two of them won their games.

The SEC and Big 12 were clearly the two best conferences in America this season and I don't think one season can change that. Therefore, the drop from #2 to #3 is a steep one. Is it a coincidence that Texas and Florida produce the most talented HS football players?

3. Pac-10 - Yes, the Pac-10 was the only conference to go undefeated in the bowl games - but don't be fooled. This was not an overly impressive showing: Oregon State won 3-0 against Pitt!?... Oregon may have scored a ton versus OK State, but they allowed 31 points... Cal beat Miami in San Francisco - big whoop!... and Arizona beat the always overrated BYU Cougars.

4. Big Ten - On the biggest stage, America's oldest football conference took another beating at the hands of Southern Cal. What's a shame is that Penn State was actually really good this season. And that says a lot about the strength of the conference. Ohio State surprised everyone with a strong showing in the Fiesta Bowl - but a win in that game wouldn't have been enough to help the Big Ten.

Personally, I feel like there is another drop from #4 to #5 in the conference rankings. The Big Ten is comparable to the Pac-10: a few good teams, a couple bad teams, and a bunch of average teams. With either conference you never know exactly what you're going to get. On any given day the best can look bad and the worst can look good.

5. Big East - If I had things my way, the Big East (as well as the ACC) would be stripped of their automatic BCS bids. Six of eight Big East teams did finish the season with eight or more wins - but if Cincinnati is your conference champion, you have a problem. To Big East die-hards who want to defend the league by bringing up the conference's 4-2 bowl record: Rutgers beat a 6-6 NC State team because their starting quarterback left the game, Pat White single-handedly willed West Virginia to a win over Carolina in the last seconds, and your other two wins came against Memphis (who finished 6th in C-USA) and Buffalo (who, at the time, was 7-5). Cincy and Pitt, the Big East's two best teams, combined for only seven points in the Orange and Sun Bowls. Sorry about the italics. I couldn't help myself.

6. ACC - You may be surprised to see the Atlantic Coast Conference ranked below the Big East. Virginia Tech beat Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl and ten of the conference's twelve teams played in a bowl game, right? Yes, but Georgia Tech was embarrassed by LSU, BC lost to Vandy (their first bowl win in 53 years), and the ACC lost to the Big East in head-to-head matchups, 2-1. It's a virtual push, but the ACC is sixth based on that final figure.

Honestly, No. 5 and 6 are interchangeable. Each league lacks a National Championship contender and both are flooded with average teams. Although I was tempted to move C-USA or the Mountain West ahead of the Big East or ACC, I couldn't bring myself to it. My top six get the automatic BCS bids for a reason: They are the six best.

7. C-USA - When the ACC persuaded Miami, VA Tech and BC away from the Big East, Louisville jumped at the opportunity to play in a BCS conference. With C-USA losing their premier team, the future looked bleak. Since then, however, they've made great strides. They fielded six bowl teams this season -- more than the Pac-10 and every other "mid-major" conference -- and upset many quality non-conference programs. With an impressive 4-2 bowl record, including Tulsa's ass-kicking of Ball State, Conference USA deserves more credit than it's getting.

8. Mountain West - The MWC may have ended the season with three ranked teams and the nation's only undefeated, but if they played the nine best from the Pac-10 or their eight best played the Big East head-to-head, things could get ugly. I give Utah a lot of credit for beating Alabama in New Orleans, and I've been rooting for TCU for years - but this is a top-heavy conference that doesn't stack up from top to bottom. Utah and TCU are legit programs, but the rest of the league stinks.

Note to reader: I didn't intend to group my rankings when I started writing this - it just worked out that way. I think there is another drop in quality after the Mountain West. Quite frankly, these last three leagues are awful. I would never tell you to stop reading what I have to say, but you can walk away from the computer now if you'd like...

9. WAC - The Western Athletic Conference gets the nod at #9 for one reason: The blue-turf Broncos of Boise. They were undefeated through the regular season -- highlighted by a 37-32 win at Oregon -- and finished with a 12-1 record. However, the second-best team in the WAC this year was Louisiana Tech(?), Hawaii fell off the map after losing June Jones and Colt Brennan, and Fresno State no longer wins big games. This is the type of conference where each team has a good year or two (because of a great player or two) before going into a decade-long hibernation.

10. MAC - The Mid-American Conference comes in at #10 by default. Five years ago this league was considered the best mid-major conference around. As for this year, Ball State was a nice story - until they lost to a 7-5 Buffalo team in the MAC Championship Game. I realized two things when that happened: a) Ball State was a fraud and b) the MAC stinks. When one of your division champs is 7-5, you will not finish high on this list.

11. Sun Belt - This conference is bad. How bad, you ask? They sported only two bowl teams this year, struggled against anyone decent outside their conference, their lone bowl win was a close call versus Central Michigan, and their best team (Troy) lost their bowl to C-USA's fifth-best team, Southern Miss. When things are this bad, it's like my man Biggie said, the sky's the limit!