College Football 2010: So it begins

[SlowwHand]

For the people that ranked Oregon ahead of TCU, what are you going to do when they move to the Big East?
Did you even notice what conference had the best bowl season? It wasn't Big 10 or PAC 10.

[Imran Siddiqui]

When TCU moves to the Big East, it'll be like 2 years from now. I'm sure we'll have other teams we are ranking .

However, I believe we definitely saw the two best teams in college football on Monday and that's why they are 1 & 2 in my rankings.

[SlowwHand]

TCU hasn't lost in two years. How do you figure?

[Solomwi]

For the people that ranked Oregon ahead of TCU, what are you going to do when they move to the Big East?
Did you even notice what conference had the best bowl season? It wasn't Big 10 or PAC 10.

Same thing I do now: evaluate what they've done and against what competition they've done it, and compare that to what other teams have done and against whom.

Clearly the SEC had the best bowl season. It brought in the most payout money, both absolutely ($54 million, with the Big 10's $49 million in second) and per conference member ($4.52 million to the Big 10's $4.44 million), won a fifth straight national championship, and went 4-1 in the major games. That the SEC's minor bowl contingent (all from the East, incidentally) did poorly doesn't really change any of that. Of course, that's to be expected when the matchups include Big East #5 (and co-champion) vs. SEC #10, ACC #2 vs. SEC #5, and even CUSA #1 vs. SEC #9.

Of course, I'm sure you mean the MWC's little 4-1 record. Just don't peek behind the curtain to see that two of those came against the #7 teams in the ACC and CUSA. Just focus on that Rose Bowl.

Just for kicks, I did the numbers on the SEC West alone: $45 million ($7.5 million per team), a 4-1 record, all in major January bowls, and a national championship. Clearly, the SEC West had a better bowl season than anybody, until the time comes to split the money with those damn freeloaders from the East.

Here's the full rundown (payout data from this place):

SEC: $54,275,000/$4,523,000
Big 10: $48,787,500/$4,435,000
Pac 10: $41,112,500/$4,111,000
Big 12: $30,937,500/$2,578,000
ACC: $28,980,000/$2,415,000
Big East: $23,730,000/$2,966,000

For comparison:

MWC: $21,350,000/$2,372,000
WAC: $3,037,500/$338,000

That Boise-Nevada game made a bit of a difference to the MWC and WAC, to say the least.

[SlowwHand]

Try Bowl wins, not money, oh jaded one.

[Tuberski]

See, even SEC fans know that the SEC is all about money. Of course, $4.5 mil is a lot of money for ****holes like Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

ACK!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Try Bowl wins, not money, oh jaded one.

Of course, I'm sure you mean the MWC's little 4-1 record. Just don't peek behind the curtain to see that two of those came against the #7 teams in the ACC and CUSA. Just focus on that Rose Bowl.

Let's not do any reading there Sloww . Also the money means the relative status of the bowl games and the opponents.

[Imran Siddiqui]

See, even SEC fans know that the SEC is all about money. Of course, $4.5 mil is a lot of money for ****holes like Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

ACK!

Have you seen statehouse budgets?! $4.5 Mil is a lot to anyone right now!

[SlowwHand]

Let's not do any reading there Sloww . Also the money means the relative status of the bowl games and the opponents.

Practice what you preach. All he spoke of was monetary. I was talking about Bowl wins. Are you following yet?

[Imran Siddiqui]

AGAIN:

Of course, I'm sure you mean the MWC's little 4-1 record. Just don't peek behind the curtain to see that two of those came against the #7 teams in the ACC and CUSA. Just focus on that Rose Bowl.

[Solomwi]

Practice what you preach. All he spoke of was monetary. I was talking about Bowl wins. Are you following yet?

You're an idiot. Besides what Imran pointed out, twice, I mentioned the national title and the 4-1 record in major bowls (and I got that wrong, as it was actually 5-1). If you were only talking about wins, though, surely even you can recognize that 5>4, and therefore agree with me that the SEC had the best bowl season of any conference.

[Solomwi]

See, even SEC fans know that the SEC is all about money. Of course, $4.5 mil is a lot of money for ****holes like Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

ACK!

The bowls are all about money. That's why it makes sense to consider money earned when determining who had the best bowl season.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Solomwi is very wise.

[Boris Godunov]

For the people that ranked Oregon ahead of TCU, what are you going to do when they move to the Big East?
Did you even notice what conference had the best bowl season? It wasn't Big 10 or PAC 10.

My ranking logic goes like this:

Auburn and Oregon were ranked #1 and #2 prior to the NCG. Based on the overwhelming consensus, that ranking seemed right. Since one or the other had to win the NCG, a nail-biter of a finish doesn't, IMO, diminish the rankings of either. As for TCU, they had one common foe this season with Oregon, which was Oregon State. Having watched both games, I can say without hesitation that TCU had a tougher time with the Beavers than the Ducks did. Of course there are lots of factors such as the point in their respective schedules when they played them, but based on those results, I have to give a slight edge to Oregon.

Honestly, I think that Auburn, Oregon and TCU could all beat each other on any given day, depending on the circumstances.

[Solomwi]

See, even SEC fans know that the SEC is all about money. Of course, $4.5 mil is a lot of money for ****holes like Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

ACK!

Recognizing what you were going for here, the second sentence still got me thinking about the split inside the conference. I don't know how any other conference does it, but the SEC essentially splits each bowl pot 14 ways. The participating school gets a double share, while the other schools and the conference each get a single share. Here are the bowl takes for each school, obviously in millions:

Alabama - $4.18
Arkansas - $5.09
Auburn - $5.09
Florida - $4.10
Georgia - $4.00
Kentucky - $3.94
LSU - $4.13
Mississippi State - $4.07
Ole Miss - $3.88
South Carolina - $4.05
Tennessee - $3.99
Vanderbilt - $3.88

By state, where there's more than one program (including Vanderbilt, even though it's private):

Alabama - $9.27
Mississippi - $7.95
Tennessee - $7.87