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Can the Big 12 or the ACC catch the SEC?

Posted: Jul 19, 2009

With every football season, the conversation around the nation leads to the inevitable question- who is the best conference? Many fans answer the same every year (their favorite) while others look a little more objectively. I found it interesting a couple of weeks ago when separate articles written in different sections of our Swampland footprint addressed the same question- could their local conference catch up to the SEC. The piece in North Carolina was a little more accepting of the gap between the ACC and SEC, while the piece in Texas was a little more optimistic in pushing the fact the Big 12 is ready to pass America’s top dog.

Let’s start with the league that has won five of the eleven BCS National Titles, including three in a row. It’s pretty difficult to debate that the SEC is not on top of the college football landscape. We wrote about it before last season started – a season that ended with another SEC National Championship. Whether it’s the tradition, facilities, recruiting, top coaches, or alumni support, the quality of SEC play across the board is second to none. That superiority was magnified even more this offseason by the league’s historic television deal with ESPN. That’s America’s “sports leader”, based in the Northeast, spending billions on a conference where the largest media markets (Atlanta/Orlando/Tampa) don’t actually have SEC campuses. That contract shows how much drawing power the league has and how high the quality of football is across the board.

The ACC boasted about its parity last year with so many teams grouped so close together. Unfortunately, Virginia Tech has been the only elite team in the league over the past three to four years. The solution for the ACC to start catching the SEC seems pretty simple- Florida State and Miami have to get back to national prominence. Both schools have won national crowns in the last decade and reside in one of the top three recruiting grounds in the country. When the ACC went to twelve teams, it put these two prominent schools in different divisions hoping they would be the flagships programs in building the football reputation of the historically basketball-driven league. FSU won the first ACC Title Game, but neither Sunshine State team has even played in the conference championship since that 2005 game. If Miami and FSU can get back on the national radar, it will raise the league’s profile along with Virginia Tech being a top team and the improving North Carolina and Georgia Tech programs.

The Big 12 is definitely closer to the SEC, but they have morphed into a Texas and Oklahoma-only race over the last five or six seasons. And as good as the Sooners have been as the conference’s lead dog recently, the reality that Bob Stoops’ club has lost their last five BCS games does not help the league’s national profile. The Big 12 is now dominated by coaches running wide-open spread offenses, and the quarterbacks are putting up huge Heisman numbers, as the above article references. That’s great for attention, but that offensive-minded approach (Big 12 defenses were horrid last season) doesn’t always work when it comes to truly elite matchups. Oklahoma had the highest scoring offense in history last year but were held to 14 points by Florida. Teams like Oklahoma State and Kansas should be very good this season, but when they lose all of their weapons in 2010, their programs will likely take a step back (a lot like Texas Tech and Missouri this year). In order for the Big 12 to “catch up”, a couple of schools not named the Sooners or Longhorns are going to need to maintain success for a few seasons, not just a couple of good seasons when they get the right skill people in place.

A lot of fans in ACC and Big 12 country (and all over the nation) are ready to see a national champion outside of an SEC team. However, it is pretty rare for regional media (known for placating to the local fan base) in those areas of Texas and North Carolina to even admit that the SEC is the conference on top of college football. CBS national writer Dennis Dodd says “we’re all tired” of the SEC. Really Dennis? I don’t think the decision makers at CBS are tired of the featured SEC game they broadcast every Saturday afternoon. The ACC and Big 12 have potential to be monster leagues, but for now, the SEC is King.
 

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