From: harbison@dbsun.uucp (harbison)
Subject: Re: Conference Strength
Organization: BioMerieux-Vitek, St. Louis Mo.
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 01:56:40 GMT

In article <TQc=BD+@engin.umich.edu>
hpang@engin.umich.edu (Ho Sun Pang) writes:
> In article <1993Jan4.132630.13234@mlb.semi.harris.com>
> dhead@comanche.ess.harris.com writes:
> >
> > So, let's see.  How did the conferences do in bowl games?  Something
> > like
> >   SEC    5 out of 6
> >   ACC    3 out of 4
> >   PAC10  2 out of 6
> > Not sure about the rest, but no other conference had more than 2 wins.
> > It is obvious that the SEC was really the strongest, but the ACC held
> > its own.
> Just a bread for thoughts:  You cannot simply use no. of bowl wins to
> determine which conference is the toughest/best.  Say, may be a
> conference which having 6 teams in bowl games and win 5 of
> them because most of them are playing nobody in these bowl games.

Well, here are some facts to help your bread rise.  :-)

The following table summarizes the bowl records and opponent rankings
for the SEC, PAC-10, and (for Mr. Pang's benefit) the Big-10.  Detailed
information for each conference follows.  As you can see, 5 of 6 SEC
teams played opponents that were ranked in the CNN poll prior to the
bowl game.  In fact, 4 of 6 SEC teams played HIGHER ranked opponents,
yet the SEC had the best bowl record of any conference.


                               | Big 10 | Pac 10 | SEC
-------------------------------+--------+--------+-----
Members In Conference          |   10   |   10   |  12
Bowl Invitations               |    3   |    6   |   6
Bowl Record, 1992/93           |  1-2   |  2-4   | 5-1
Played Ranked Opponent         |    3   |    2   |   5
Played Higher Ranked Opponent  |    2   |    1   |   4


Source: USA Today, 93/01/03
APp  = AP poll, previous week
AP   = AP poll, final
CNNp = CNN poll, previous week
CNN  = CNN poll, final
SG   = Sagarin ratings, final

The question marks indicate missing information.  I do not have the
previous AP poll and the current AP poll only lists the previous ranking
for the current AP Top 25.  Several PAC-10 and Big-10 teams and their
opponents were not in the final AP Top 25.  No team with a question mark
could have been ranked higher than 21 in the previous AP poll, since the
previous 1-20 are still in the Top 25. 


SEC Bowl Record
                                    -------- Rank --------
Bowl          Teams         Score   APp  AP  CNNp  CNN  SG
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sugar         Alabama         34     2    1    2     1   1
              Miama(FL)       13     1    3    1     3   4
-----------------------------------------------------------
Citrus        Georgia         21     8    8    8     8   7
              Ohio State      14    15   18   14    19  15
-----------------------------------------------------------
Gator         Florida         27    14   10   15    11  10
              N.C. State      10    12   17   12    15  13
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hall Of Fame  Tennessee       38    17   12   17    12  14
              Boston College  23    16   21   16    21  28
-----------------------------------------------------------
Liberty       Mississippi     13    20   16   19    16  16
              Air Force       00    NR   NR   NR    NR  61
-----------------------------------------------------------
Peach         Miss. State     17    24   23   NR    NR  29
              North Carolina  21    19   19   20    18  19


PAC-10 Bowl Record
                                    -------- Rank --------
Bowl          Teams         Score   APp  AP  CNNp  CNN  SG
-----------------------------------------------------------
Blockbuster   Stanford        24    13    9   13     9   6
              Penn. St.        3    ??   NR   21    24  30
-----------------------------------------------------------
Copper        Washington St   31    18   15   18    17  18
              Utah            28    NR   NR   NR    NR  56
-----------------------------------------------------------
Freedom       USC              7    ??   NR   25    NR  22
              Fresno St.      24    NR   24   NR    22  24
-----------------------------------------------------------
Independence  Oregon          35    ??   NR   NR    NR  31
              Wake Forest     39    NR   25   NR    25  20
-----------------------------------------------------------
Rose          Washington      31     9   11   11    10  11
              Michigan        38     7    5    7     5   5
-----------------------------------------------------------
John Hancock  Arizona         15    ??   NR   22    NR  23
              Baylor          20    NR   NR   NR    NR  33


Big Ten Bowl Record
                                    -------- Rank --------
Bowl          Teams         Score   APp  AP  CNNp  CNN  SG
-----------------------------------------------------------
Citrus        Ohio State      14    15   18   14    19  15
              Georgia         21     8    8    8     8   7
-----------------------------------------------------------
Holiday       Illinois        17    NR   NR   NR    NR  43
              Hawaii          27    NR   20   24    20  21
-----------------------------------------------------------
Rose          Michigan        38     7    5    7     5   5
              Washington      31     9   11   11    10  11


-- 
*realName: Phil Harbison
*mailName: harbison%dbsun.uucp@wupost.wustl.edu
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