Conference Bowl ratings
stephenj
Here's my list of the top BCS conferences by bowl performance. Note that
i dont' rate all
bowls equally! A win in a big bowl counts more than a loss in a minor
bowl. It's much more indicative of conference strength of your #1 beats
their #1 in the orange bowl than if your #5 beats their #5 in the music
city bowl. With that caveat:
1) Big 12
Wins: rose bowl, fort worth bowl, alamo bowl, holiday bowl, indepedence bowl
Losses: champs sports, houston, cotton
The Big 12 goes 5-3 in the bowls, including a win in the grandaddy of
them all over #1 BCS USC. They also notched a big win over the #5 BCS
team in the Holiday Bowl. Those two wins over top-5 BCS teams tips it.
The only somewhat important loss was TT's razor-thin defeat to Alabama
in the venerable Cotton bowl.
Best performance:
Texas 41 USC 38 for the national title.
Honorable mention:
Oklahoma 17 Oregon 14 in the Holiday bowl.
2) Big 10
Wins: orange bowl, fiesta bowl, capital one bowl
Losses: alamo bowl, music city bowl, sun bowl, outback bowl
May seem strange to rank a conference that went 3-4 as second best, but
what tips it to them is that not all bowls are equally important. The
Big 10 lost minor bowls but won 2 of the 4 BCS bowls, plus the biggest
non-BCS bowl. The only somewhat important loss was Iowa in the Outback.
In fact, i'd normally rank the conference that wins 2 BCS bowls #1 on
that alone, but what tips it to the Big 12 is that Oklahoma's win over
Oregon in the Holiday was against a much better opponent than PSU's
razor-thin win over FSU in the Orange Bowl.
Best performance:
Wisconsin 24 Auburn 10
Wisconsin dominated BCS #9 Aubrun start-to-finish. This was the 2nd best
bowl performance by any team.
Honorable mention: tOSU 34 Notre Dame 20
tOSU rolled up over 600 yards of offense in beating BCS #6 Notre Dame
by 14 points.
3) SEC
Wins: outback, cotton, peach
Losses: sugar, capital one, independence
The SEC scored some nice wins in the cotton and outback bowls, two
upper-tier bowls, and LSU had the best performance of anyone in whipping
Miami in the peach, but what the SEC suffered big blows in upset losses
vs. non-top-10 opponents in the Sugar Bowl and Cap One Bowl, their two
biggest bowls.
Best performance:
LSU 40 Miami 3, Peach Bowl
4) ACC
Wins: champs sports, MPC computers, music city, meineke, gator
Losses: orange, peach, emerald
The ACC went 5-3 in bowl games, but 4 of those wins were in minor bowls.
Only VT's win over Louisville in the gator was against a top 20
opponent. The florida schools let the conference down, Miami losing
spectacularly to LSU, and FSU gamely falling to PSU.
Like the SEC, the ACC lost it's two biggest bowl games. In their favor,
they won 2 extra bowl games, but that's not enough to offset (a) the SEC
beating the ACC badly in their one showdown game (peach bowl) and (b)
the SEC's wins coming in bigger bowls vs. ranked opponents.
Best performance:
VT 35 Lousville 24, gator bowl.
5) Pac 10
Wins: las vegas, insight, sun
Losses: rose, holiday
The Pac 10 went 3-2 in bowl games. Problem was, they lost their two
biggest games and none of their three wins was against anything like a
top opponent. A very disappointing bowl season, as the Pac 10 was
favored in all 5 games.
Best performance:
UCLA 50 Northwestern 38, Sun Bowl
6) Big East
Wins: Sugar Bowl
Losses: gator, meineke, insight
The yeast went 1-3 in bowl games, but that "1" was huge: a massive upset
of #7 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Enough, probably, to keep the
bid-swipers away for another year. Other than that, USF was the only
bowl team not to score a point, and Lousville faded out in their grudge
match with VT.
Best performance:
WVU 38 Georgia 35, Sugar Bowl
--
"if federal judges have the final word over its meaning,
the Constitution would be a mere thing of wax in the hands
of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form
they please".
- Thomas Jefferson
Wonko the Sane
>Wins: rose bowl, fort worth bowl, alamo bowl, holiday bowl, indepedence bowl
>Losses: champs sports, houston, cotton
>The Big 12 goes 5-3 in the bowls, including a win in the grandaddy of
>them all over #1 BCS USC. They also notched a big win over the #5 BCS
>team in the Holiday Bowl. Those two wins over top-5 BCS teams tips it.
>The only somewhat important loss was TT's razor-thin defeat to Alabama
>in the venerable Cotton bowl.
</homerkookmode>
I would add that two of the three losses (TT and ISU) were by 40+ yard
field goals to top fifteen teams (Alabumble and TCU) and the other
(Colorado) had an interim coach and a second string QB. Still, they
managed to give Clemson something of a game, at least in the fourth
quarter. Not bad for a conference that was supposed to suck.
</end homerkookmode>
>2) Big 10
>Wins: orange bowl, fiesta bowl, capital one bowl
>Losses: alamo bowl, music city bowl, sun bowl, outback bowl
>May seem strange to rank a conference that went 3-4 as second best, but
>what tips it to them is that not all bowls are equally important.
The Big Televen suffered from the dreaded BCS-at-large syndrome. With
two teams in BCS bowls, everyone else got bumped up a notch to tougher
match-ups. I agree that they did better than their 3-4 record would
indicate.
Doug
Jim Brown
"Wonko the Sane" <do...@sorensensdomain.net> wrote in message
news:1136478600....@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Thats a great point. tOSU still beats Auburn. The team that showed up for
Wisconsin whips Florida. Michigan still loses Alamo. NW still loses Sun.
Iowa wins MC bowl. Minn wins MoC bowl. 5-2, not bad.
Jefferson N Glapski
You predicted FSU over PSU. In that case, any MOV should do.
--
Jefferson N. Glapski
http://www.freealberta.com
stephenj
> stephenj wrote:
> You predicted FSU over PSU.
i predicted FSU, USC, Notre Dame, and Georgia would win. I was worse
than the Big East.
Dave Christian
> Jefferson N Glapski wrote:
> > stephenj wrote:
>
> > You predicted FSU over PSU.
>
> i predicted FSU, USC, Notre Dame, and Georgia would win. I was worse
> than the Big East.
The Big East won a BCS bowl.
ACC?
tom_sa...@yahoo.com
than the Big East. "
Take heart, stephen, your predictions were "sterling." ;-)