Sports Illustrated (si.com) has created an index which ranks the best conferences in the BCS era based on BCS bowl record, nonconference performance (like the RPI formula used for college basketball), percentage of teams in the final Associated Press (AP) poll, record in other bowl games and NFL draft picks per team. Data from the 10 years of the BCS was used for the study, and it was divided into two five-year periods to account for the shift of teams from the Big East to the ACC. Each metric was rated on a point system, for example, six points were awarded for first place, five points for second and so on. The BCS and top 25 categories weighted doubly. Below are the results:
|
| 2003-08 | 1998-'03 | | 1. | SEC (40) | 1. Big Ten (35) | | 2. | Pac-10 (29) | 2. SEC (31) | | 3. | ACC (23) | 3. Big 12 (25) | | 4. | Big Ten (22) | 4. Pac-10 (21) | | 5. | Big 12 (19) | 5. Big East (18) | | 6. | Big East (16) | 6. ACC (17) | |
I was shocked that the Big 12 was that low and that the ACC was above them. Looking at the numbers, the Big 12 ranked 5th in terms of teams being ranked in the final AP Poll with 30% of the teams in the conference, on average, being included. The Big 12 ranked 4th in BCS bowl game record coming in at 3 -5 with Texas accounting for two of the wins and OU accounting for four of the five losses. Overall, the Big 12 barely finished over .500 in all bowl games, winning 16 and losing 15 slotting them in 4th place for this category. Non-conference RPI ranked third and Big 12 NFL draft picks ranked 5th, with 11.7 players, on average, being selected. It is a pretty hard method to argue with. I have been thinking about loopholes for a while now and can't come up with any other metrics that could put the Big 12 any higher on this list. Any thoughts?
No comments:
Post a Comment