Primary Reasons college football fans in the North, Midwest, Southwest and Far West hate the SEC :
1) The SEC as a whole, doesn't play enough games against power conferences.
2) The SEC says they don't need to play these games because their SEC schedule is so tough.
3) Complete and total arrogance of the SEC fan base.
4) The SEC is the best and everyone likes the underdog.
In an attempt to see if the rest of the nation has a case from a scheduling standpoint, I went back to 2000 to look at the non-conference schedules of all SEC teams over the past 15 seasons. I thought I'd share this info with everyone because personally while not an SEC fan, I still believe this conference to be far better from top to bottom than any conference in the country.
Here is the non-conference data for the SEC (including Bowl Games) for the past 15 seasons sorted by number of games played vs. each non-conference league:
FCS-1AA 129 - 3 0.977
SUN BELT 120 - 7 0.945
ACC 73 - 49 0.598
C-USA 94 - 16 0.855
BIG 10 35 - 24 0.593
BIG 12 35 - 21 0.604
MAC 47 - 3 0.940
BIG EAST 17 - 25 0.405
WAC 34 - 3 0.919
Independent 19 - 9 0.679
PAC 10 10 - 12 0.455
MWC 13 - 7 0.650
AAC 8 - 3 0.727
PAC 12 4 - 1 0.800
BIG WEST 4 - 0 1.000
TOTAL 639 - 183 0.777
vs. Power Conf. 171 - 132 0.564
vs. Others 468 - 51 0.902
YEARLY AVG 42.6 - 12.2
vs. Power Conf . 11.4 - 8.8
vs. Others 31.2 - 3.4
ANALYSIS - The data shows clear arguments for both sides. The SEC only plays an average of 20 games per season against schools from power conferences. Most of these contests take place in Bowl Games. However, the SEC wins 56% of those games.
The SEC plays an average of 35 games per season against non power conference schools including FCS- 1AA schools. However, the SEC rarely loses these games, winning over 90%.
The most interesting information I have found when digging deeper into the data was that rivalries make up most of the non conference games vs. power conferences. For example, Georgia and South Carolina have each played 23 games vs. the ACC and have had huge success, compiling a 32-14 record since 2000. If you remove those games from the ACC total, the rest of the SEC is 41-35 against the ACC.
Here's one that adds fuel to the fire. Over the years, I have come to the realization that SEC fans hate the PAC 12 and visa versa. PAC 12 fans contend they are on par with the SEC and the head to head results tend to support this. Over the past 15 seasons the SEC and PAC 10/12 have only met 27 times, mostly in bowl games. The SEC is 14-13 in those contests. Additionally, it is interesting that 5 SEC schools have not played a game vs. the PAC 10/12 in at least 15 years. Those schools are: Mississippi, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. Also, Texas A&M has not played a PAC 12 team since they moved to the SEC.
This post was edited on 1/10 10:02 AM by LAZL
1) The SEC as a whole, doesn't play enough games against power conferences.
2) The SEC says they don't need to play these games because their SEC schedule is so tough.
3) Complete and total arrogance of the SEC fan base.
4) The SEC is the best and everyone likes the underdog.
In an attempt to see if the rest of the nation has a case from a scheduling standpoint, I went back to 2000 to look at the non-conference schedules of all SEC teams over the past 15 seasons. I thought I'd share this info with everyone because personally while not an SEC fan, I still believe this conference to be far better from top to bottom than any conference in the country.
Here is the non-conference data for the SEC (including Bowl Games) for the past 15 seasons sorted by number of games played vs. each non-conference league:
FCS-1AA 129 - 3 0.977
SUN BELT 120 - 7 0.945
ACC 73 - 49 0.598
C-USA 94 - 16 0.855
BIG 10 35 - 24 0.593
BIG 12 35 - 21 0.604
MAC 47 - 3 0.940
BIG EAST 17 - 25 0.405
WAC 34 - 3 0.919
Independent 19 - 9 0.679
PAC 10 10 - 12 0.455
MWC 13 - 7 0.650
AAC 8 - 3 0.727
PAC 12 4 - 1 0.800
BIG WEST 4 - 0 1.000
TOTAL 639 - 183 0.777
vs. Power Conf. 171 - 132 0.564
vs. Others 468 - 51 0.902
YEARLY AVG 42.6 - 12.2
vs. Power Conf . 11.4 - 8.8
vs. Others 31.2 - 3.4
ANALYSIS - The data shows clear arguments for both sides. The SEC only plays an average of 20 games per season against schools from power conferences. Most of these contests take place in Bowl Games. However, the SEC wins 56% of those games.
The SEC plays an average of 35 games per season against non power conference schools including FCS- 1AA schools. However, the SEC rarely loses these games, winning over 90%.
The most interesting information I have found when digging deeper into the data was that rivalries make up most of the non conference games vs. power conferences. For example, Georgia and South Carolina have each played 23 games vs. the ACC and have had huge success, compiling a 32-14 record since 2000. If you remove those games from the ACC total, the rest of the SEC is 41-35 against the ACC.
Here's one that adds fuel to the fire. Over the years, I have come to the realization that SEC fans hate the PAC 12 and visa versa. PAC 12 fans contend they are on par with the SEC and the head to head results tend to support this. Over the past 15 seasons the SEC and PAC 10/12 have only met 27 times, mostly in bowl games. The SEC is 14-13 in those contests. Additionally, it is interesting that 5 SEC schools have not played a game vs. the PAC 10/12 in at least 15 years. Those schools are: Mississippi, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. Also, Texas A&M has not played a PAC 12 team since they moved to the SEC.
This post was edited on 1/10 10:02 AM by LAZL