There are new realities involving the power conferences this season, with the alignment moves of past years becoming official this time. Louisville is in the Atlantic Coast Conference, while Maryland is out. Rutgers is no longer in the American Athletic Conference. It’s now in the Big Ten along with Maryland. How will the five power conferences stack up? Here’s a look:
1. Southeastern Conference
The SEC was not at its best last year, but even when not as good as it used to be, the SEC is still better than the rest. Auburn and Alabama were both better than a lot of other two-team combinations at the top of various power conferences. Missouri also became a really good team, helping the SEC to minimize the losses it suffered in the middle of the conference. South Carolina was a fourth quality team in the league. Again, this was in a down year for the SEC.
It’s true that Arkansas remained a bad team last year. Texas A&M was a lot worse compared to 2012. Georgia tumbled. Florida collapsed and crumbled. Tennessee was so-so. LSU had a shaky season. There is reason to doubt the SEC. Yet, Georgia and Florida should both be better this year, as should Arkansas. LSU won’t be worse. South Carolina, Auburn, and Alabama are still going to be really good. That’s going to top other conferences.
2. Pac 12
This conference is fairly deep. Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, and Arizona State are all going to be very good teams in 2014. How good is the question, but all of these teams should win at least nine games, making the Pac-12 a conference to be reckoned with. The Pac-12 also has teams from Washington, Arizona, and USC that are also going to be difficult to handle, just not as good as the top four in all likelihood. If the Pac-12 has seven solid teams, that’s a level of depth that’s going to be hard to match elsewhere.
3. Big 12
The Big 12 has only 10 schools whereas the Big Ten and ACC have 14. However, the 10 in the Big 12 are pretty good. Texas Tech, TCU, and Texas should all be decent teams at the very least. They’re probably not going to be below-average. They might all make bowl games, and Texas should make a bowl game of reasonable quality and pedigree. Then, the top three teams in the league could really perform at a high level. Oklahoma whipped Alabama in the Sugar Bowl last season. The Sooners have the look and feel of a team that’s ready to once again be a contender on the national stage. Baylor, the defending Big12 champion, gets back its quarterback from 2013, Bryce Petty. The Bears are going to continue to be a nightmare matchup for most teams. Kansas State, coached by Bill Snyder, is going to be nasty.
4. Big Ten
The Big Ten has Michigan State, a team that finished in the top five at the end of the 2013 season. The conference has Ohio State, a team that was one win from playing for the 2013 national championship. Wisconsin is annually a conference contender, a team that is always in the Rose Bowl hunt. The Big Ten has a lot of weak teams as well, but second-level schools such as Nebraska and Michigan and Penn State will always give the Big Ten a chance to be a very deep conference.
5. Atlantic Coast
The ACC has Florida State, the defending national champion, and Clemson, the Orange Bowl champion, but after those two teams, what is there? The ACC hopes that Louisville will make a splash in its first season, but it’s just too early to say. Miami has been a massive disappointment over the past 10 years, as has North Carolina. Virginia Tech has really struggled over the past four seasons. Pittsburgh and Syracuse did not do much when they entered the conference last season. North Carolina State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Virginia, Georgia Tech – these schools have underperformed in recent years as well. Only Duke did something really impressive and beyond expectations last year. This is just a very thin conference that has to build a lot more good teams from fourth through seventh place, where other conferences are stronger.
Other conferences in terms of strength:
6. AAC
7. Mountain West
8. Mid-American
9. Conference USA
10. Sun Belt
