Conference Strength

Please keep in mind the following was sent to me via email, but it will be useful for future rants-

This covers the past 15 years. The year listed next to the school is the last year that school finished in the top ten. An ()* means that team finished in the top five during that time span with the year they last finished in the top five in parentheses.

Pac-10
USC 2004 (2004)*
Cal 2004
Washington St. 2003
Oregon 2001 (2001)*
Oregon St. 2000 (2000)*
Washington 2000 (2000)*
Arizona 1998 (1998)*
UCLA 1998 (1997)*
Arizona St. 1996 (1996)*
Stanford 1992

Ten out of ten teams (100%) finished in the top ten, with seven of those teams finishing in the top five (70%).

Big Ten
Iowa 2004
Ohio St. 2003 (2003)*
Michigan 2003 (1999)*
Wisconsin 1999 (1999)*
Michigan St. 1999
Penn St. 1996 (1994)*
Northwestern 1995

Seven out of 11 teams (63.6%) finished in the top ten with four finishing in the top five (36.4%).

SEC
Auburn 2004 (2004)*
Georgia 2004 (2002)*
LSU 2003 (2003)*
Florida 2001 (2001)*
Tennessee 2001 (2001)*
Alabama 1999 (1994)*

Six out of 12 teams (50%) finished in the top ten, all six finished in the top five (50%).

Big XII
Oklahoma 2004 (2004)*
Texas 2004 (2004)*
Kansas St. 2002
Nebraska 2001 (1999)*
Colorado 2001 (1995)*
Kansas 1995
Texas A&M 1994

Seven out of 12 teams (58.3%) made it to the top ten, and four teams finished in the top five (33%).

I won't bother with the ACC or the Big East, since neither of those conferences had any teams that were good other than Miami, Florida St. and Virginia Tech.

Update on Monday, February 28, 2005 at 06:46PM by CFR

Here's a follow-up-This gets to some of what I was talking earlier about the problem with bifurcated conferences, artificially boosting the top teams, by getting fat off a host of bottom feeders every year on the schedule:

The SEC is really, really smart. They schedule light outside their league, and that coupled with the bottom feeders really staying down so long leads to those type of results. Just consider this: Here is the last time respective teams in the SEC finished in a Top 10 of a final poll. Arkansas: 1982 Kentucky: 1977 Mississippi St: 1940 Ole Miss: 1969 SC: NEVER! Vandy: NEVER!

Comments

[Stephen Kim]

UNC had good teams under Mack Brown...

1990 Ga Tech if they count, as well...

BC 1993...