Is the Big 12 Viewed as a Power Conference?
While college football is just around the corner, unfortunately, we still have some downtime before the season gets here.
The dreaded offseason is still upon us but with the way the hot takes have been flying out between the Athletic and Paul Finebaum, I have been a busy man as of late.
On Tuesday morning, I was scrolling through Twitter (or is it X now?) and saw an Ohio State fan post this awful tweet.
This person must be pretty savvy when it comes to Twitter, because they seem to have quite the following despite takes like this.
Let me start by saying the SEC is the home of the best college football teams in the country. Georgia and Alabama have dominated the sport for the last few years, and I will throw in that 2019 LSU team as well. But from top to bottom, is the SEC really better than everyone else? I think that is certainly debatable.
However, where things get interesting for me is when this person talks about the Big Ten and ACC. I guess that alliance written on a cocktail napkin is stronger than I thought because nobody with common sense would want to link themselves with the Clemson conference, I mean, the ACC. I guess it’s easy to mistake the name of the conference considering the fact that Clemson has won seven out of the last eight conference titles. But seriously, who thinks the ACC is a superior conference? Sure, Florida State may be on the rise under Mike Norvell and Clemson is, well, Clemson, but are there any other ACC teams that scare you? Miami has been a laughingstock for over 20 years now. Not to mention, some schools in that conference aren’t happy with the payout either.
Obviously, Mr. Ohio favors the Big Ten since he is an Ohio State fan. I guess I would have to be all about conference pride too after Michigan spanked them back-to-back years. But let’s take a closer look at the Big Ten from last season. Michigan won the conference and had a perfect 13-0 record. But when they met up with the Big 12 runner-up (TCU) in the College Football Playoff, things didn’t turn out so well.
Despite losing to Michigan, not winning their division, or even playing in the conference championship game, the Buckeyes still found themselves in the College Football Playoff where they faced Georgia. To be fair, it was a close game, but they still lost. As for the third-best team in the Big Ten, you still can’t even look to the West Division. In the two games against Ohio State and Michigan, Penn State was outscored 85-48. Clearly, there was a major gap between the top two teams and the third-best team in the conference.
And the Big Ten West? It’s a joke. The last West team to win a Big Ten title was Wisconsin back in 2012, and even then it was known as the Leaders division (Lol). The Big Ten West is made up of Purdue, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Northwestern. Purdue was the only team in the division to have a conference winning percentage above .560. Illinois finished second in the West, and they lost to Indiana, who finished sixth in the East. They also beat Iowa 9-6 in a game where everyone in attendance wanted to rip their eyes out. And speaking of Iowa, they finished third in the West despite having an offense that ranked 123rd in scoring. Plus, they lost to Iowa State, who finished dead last in the Big 12.
Call me crazy, but acting like the Big 12 doesn’t belong in the “power” conferences, while the ACC and BigTen do, is just silly. From top to bottom, the Big 12 is as deep as any conference in college football. While there may not be a team as good as Georgia or Alabama, the Big 12 has depth that other conferences don’t. And seriously, who else in college football is better than Georgia or Alabama? The answer is no one. If you want to call the SEC a Power One Conference, that’s fine, but don’t act like the Big Ten and the ACC are on that level either.
