By Any Measure, SEC's the Best

One of my pet projects over the past few weeks involved doing some research on non-conference records among the Big Six conferences. Obviously, the general consensus is that the SEC is the best conference in America, and the argument could probably end by simply stating that the past four national champions all came from the SEC.

But that analysis only underscores that the best team has been in the SEC the past few years. What I wanted to know is -- is the SEC really the top conference all around?

There are a ton of different ways to measure that, and I'm not sure any one could be considered a definitive measurement. But when it comes to overall success against its peers, it's not just one category of measurement that says the SEC is best. It's all of them.

(Note: All data is from 2005-2009, unless otherwise noted. I chose 2005 as a starting point since that was the last time there were any significant changes in conference affiliation among BCS teams.)

Best win-loss record in non-conference games...

Conf	NCW	NCL	Win %
SEC	214	56	.793
Big 12	195	72	.730
Big East	158	61	.721
Big Ten	172	73	.702
ACC	174	95	.647
Pac-10	118	65	.645

Of course, not all non-conference games are alike. Beating a top-tier opponent is better than beating a Sun Belt also-ran. So what about the records in bowl games, where every team playing has won at least six games?

Conf	Bowl Wins	Bowl Losses	Bowl Win%
SEC	28	14	.667
Big East	17	9	.654
Pac-10	18	11	.621
Big 12	21	18	.538
ACC	18	23	.439
Big Ten	13	23	.361

Interesting that the Pac-10 has just one more bowl appearance since 2005 than the SEC has bowl wins. In fact, the SEC has averaged 3.5 bowl appearances per team since 2005, and all 12 member teams have appeared in at least one bowl game. The only other conference to send each of its teams to at least one bowl during that span is the Big Ten.

Having said all that, bowls aren't necessarily the best way to judge a conference. After all, most bowl games occur a full month after teams ended their regular season, and while some teams are playing hard to earn a 'W,' others are just trying to get a leg up on the next season.

So... let's add in all games against BCS opponents, regular season and bowls. Again, the SEC takes the cake.

Conf	BCS Wins	BCS Losses	BCS Win %
SEC	59	45	.567
Pac-10	45	37	.549
Big East	49	49	.500
Big 12	44	46	.489
ACC	61	70	.466
Big 10	46	56	.451

So pretty much any way you shake it, the SEC comes out on top. But games are won and lost because of coaching and players. So... how does the SEC stack up in those aspects?

Well, let's see who's getting the best recruits. Our pal Jim F. did some research a few weeks ago, tracking all top-100 recruits from 2002-2009. Here's how it broke down by conference:

Conf	Top 100	Top 100 /team
SEC	228	19.0
ACC	148	12.3
Big 12	139	11.6
Pac-10	123	12.3
Big Ten	116	10.5
Big East	13	1.6

It's also interesting to note that, of the 123 top-100 recruits signed by Pac-10 schools during that stretch, 72 were signed by USC. In other words, the Trojans accounted for 59 percent of the top-100 recruits that went to Pac-10 schools since 2002.

Of course, all of that is the potential. What about results?

Looking at current NFL rosters, here's which conference has provided the most talent:

Conf	NFL Players	Players /team
SEC	297	24.75
ACC	272	22.67
Big Ten	250	22.72
Big 12	220	18.33
Pac-10	211	21.10
Big East	120	15.00

And how do we get from potential to results? In large part, because of coaching. And while it's easy enough to say that the SEC has the best coaches in the country, I figured it'd be worth seeing how much schools have spent to nab those coaches.

Here are the salaries paid to coaches in 2009 (NOTE: Does not include salaries for coaches at many private institutions):

Conf	Avg HC Salary	Avg Staff Salary
SEC	2.637 M	2.255 M
Big 12	2.091 M	2.009 M
ACC	1.844 M	1.879 M
Pac-10	1.791 M	1.562 M
Big Ten	1.604 M	1.451 M
Big East	1.365 M	1.538 M

So the bottom line? The SEC has more resources, better players and better results than any other conference. But you already knew that, right?

Ah, but there is one complaint that could be fairly easily leveled against the country's best football conference. The SEC, despite it's big, bad and tough reputation, doesn't get tested nearly as much as other conferences. To wit...

(NOTE: %NCG vs. BCS = percentage of all non-conference games played against teams from BCS conferences; Scheduled BCS Opp = number of non-conf games played vs. BCS conference teams exclusing bowl matchups; NC Road Games = number of non-conference games played in an opponents' stadium.)

Conf	%NCG vs BCS	Scheduled BCS Opp.	NC Road Games
ACC	49%	98 (43%)	69 (30%)
Pac-10	45%	62 (40%)	53 (34%)
Big East	45%	80 (42%)	76 (39%)
Big Ten	42%	67 (32%)	52 (25%)
SEC	39%	68 (30%)	45 (20%)
Big 12	34%	55 (24%)	63 (28%)

So of the SEC's non-conference success, just 39 percent have come against BCS opponents (second worst) and those schools schedule BCS opponents for just 30 percent of their non-conference dates (also second worst). And as any Florida hater can tell you -- SEC teams don't leave home often. Just one out of every five SEC non-conference games is played in an opposing stadium.

And speaking of all of that, tomorrow we'll take a closer look at which schools enjoy the test of a good non-conference game, and which ones set the cruise control through September.