2009 Strongest Conference...Bowl Results

I know this is not the greatest litmus test because too often a lesser team from one conference plays a stronger team from another in the bowl games. However, the bowl games are the closest thing we have to "settle it on the field" besides the much-mismatched regular season non-conference matchups.

What are your thoughts regarding the Strongest Conference in 2009 and how the bowl game results impact your stance?

Conference-by-conference bowl records
[Records through early Jan. 2 games]
Conference / Record / Percentage (Teams yet to play)

Pac-10 (5) / 5-0 / 1.000

SEC (8) /4 -1 / .800 (KY, Bama, UF)

C-USA (6) / 3-1 / .750 (EC,Tulsa)

Big East (6) / 3-2 / .600 (UConn)

Big 12 (7) / 3-2 / .600 (Tex, OU)

MWC (5) / 2-2 / .500 (Utah)

Independents (2) / 1-1 / .500

Sun Belt (2) / 1-1 / .500

ACC (10) / 4-6 / .400

WAC (5) / 1-4 / .200

Big Ten (7) / 1-5 / .167 (Ohio St.)

MAC (5) / 0-3 / .000 (Ball St., Buff)

 

SEC to 5 - 1 (with two to go) after KY defeated East Carolina, 25-19.

C-USA to 3 - 2 (with one to go)

Alabama having a tough time getting it going against a quick, excited Utah team with a chip on their shoulder.

 

I'll offer my thoughts as an outsider to the SEC.

I'm disappointed in the Big Ten but going in I didn't think that the matchups were favorable in most of the games. I was very impressed with Northwestern, extremely impressed with Iowa and felt that Michigan State played up well against Georgia. If their offense had performed in the first half as well as it did in the second they would have beaten Georgia due to the field position advantage in the first half.

Big 12. Completely underwhelming. This appears to be an overrated conference.

SEC. Strong but not as strong as believed due to the fact that the top of the conference may not be as strong as believed. Alabama is being dominated by a team that struggled to beat Michigan. Nuff said.

Pac 10. The big surprise of the bowl season. 5-0 with one win against a top 10 team in dominating fashion and 3 more wins against ranked teams in which the PAC 10 team was the lower ranked (or unranked) team in each game. A very impressive bowl performance for the conference.

ACC. About as I expected.

Big East. Better than I expected.

 

I think the Big 12, Big 10, Pac-1, ACC, and Big East can fight over #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6.

Like every season...many said the SEC was down this year but here we are again winning bowl games and playing for the national title.

Judging from the current recruiting classes, quality of coaching, attendance figures, facilities, and fan base...I don't think the SEC will be supplanted by any other conference.

The Big 12 has the best chance of coming close but everybody else is quite a distance behind.

 

Nice post.

I don't think that Utah (Jan 2, 2009) is the same Utah that Michigan played in Sept. 2008. Just my opinion. I would guess that they are even better. Also, there is alot football left in the Sugar Bowl game. Bama appears to have the momentum now.

The PAC 10 surprised me as well. I hope USC doesn't use that as part of their argument that they should have been in the BCS CG.

Big 12 has two teams (OU and Tex) and their 10 little brothers.

 

Updated...

 

What were the match-ups for the PAC10 again?

 

Oregon — beat Oklahoma State, 42-31, in the Holiday Bowl
Arizona and BYU — Arizona won, 31-21, in the Las Vegas Bowl
Cal — beat Miami, 24-17, in the Emerald Bowl
Oregon State — beat Pitt, 3-0 in the Sun Bowl
USC — beat Penn State, 38-24 in the Rose Bowl

 

To me, the most impressive win so far was Ole Miss. Mainly because this team seemed to find itself as the season wore on and has now positioned itself for 2009. Next to Florida, they may have been the second best SEC team at season's end.
I fully expected Utah to show up against Bama. The dominance was more than I expected, but the Utes were a senior-laden offensive team and had enough quality wins to leave an inkling that they might, in fact, be pretty damn good.
Of course, I can't depart without mentioning the Hawkeyes. We are much like Ole Miss in how our season went... and by season's end we were probably the 3rd best team in the Big Ten, if not second. We also only lose three defensive players from our nationally 5th ranked scoring D and 13th ranked total D and we return 8 players on offense who started at least half our games... so South Carolina ( who I'm pretty sure Spurrier thought the game started at 1 pm instead of 11 am) was really a stepping stone for our program... all in all, we shoulda been playing Georgia instead.

With your big win over GT... and some big recruits coming in... it looks like you'll be good and ready next year. I look forward to Saban having the 3rd best team in the west next year (man, it tickles me to get to say that!!)... but I believe that will be the case.

 

No....BYU is not in the Pac-10...bowls don't pit the same conference against itself.

BYU was 3rd in the MWC behind Utah and TCU.