Excellent Article

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Sports Columnist John Pruett

Statistics seem to show level of SEC football was high

Monday, January 10, 2005

Huntsville Times

Strength of schedule was supposedly the major factor that kept Auburn out of the national championship game in the Orange Bowl when the last regular-season BCS poll came out in December.

"They've got nobody to blame but themselves,'' the critics sniffed, "because of their weak non-conference schedule.''

As we all know, Auburn's non-conference schedule was comprised of Louisiana-Monroe, which finished 5-6, Louisiana Tech, which went 6-6, and The Citadel, a Division I-AA school that won only three games.

Southern California, on the other hand, played Virginia Tech (10-3), Colorado State (4-7), BYU (5-6) and Notre Dame (6-6) outside the Pac-10, while Oklahoma's non-conference schedule featured Bowling Green (9-3), Houston (3-8) and Oregon (5-6).

In the wake of USC's demolition of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl and Auburn's victory over Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl, it now seems clear the national champion Trojans and the No. 2-ranked Tigers were the two best college teams in the country.

But what has gone largely unnoticed is the irony found in the final official NCAA statistics.

Texas A&M, which was blown out by Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl, was judged to have played the most difficult schedule in 2004. The Aggies opened with Utah, which finished the season just as undefeated as USC and Auburn, then faced Wyoming, Clemson, Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Colorado, Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas and Tennessee.

North Carolina (6-6) was No. 2 with a schedule that included William & Mary, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Louisville, FSU, N.C. State, Utah, Miami, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Duke and Boston College.

No. 3 was 3-8 Arizona, which played Northern Arizona, Utah, Wisconsin, Washington State, UCLA, Oregon, Cal, Oregon State, Washington, USC and Arizona State.

No. 4 was Arizona State (9-3). The Sun Devils met UTEP, Northwestern, Iowa, Oregon State, Oregon, USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Washington State, Arizona and Purdue.

Guess who had the fifth hardest schedule, based on the final NCAA stats? Yep. Auburn. By whatever computer-human methods the NCAA uses, it was determined that any team that beats Mississippi State, LSU, Tennessee (twice), Arkansas, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama rates high marks, regardless of its non-SEC schedule.

For the record, Oklahoma's schedule was ranked 11th and USC's was 18th.

Also for the record, here's how the other SEC teams ranked in difficulty of schedule: Arkansas was No. 8, followed by Georgia (9), LSU (26), Tennessee (30), Florida (32), Kentucky (36), Ole Miss (41), Alabama (42), Vanderbilt (50), South Carolina (77) and Mississippi State (79).

All of which begs the question: Was the SEC down this year, as many have claimed? Or was it actually better than they supposed?

Contact John Pruett at johnp@htimes.com

[WarTim 3,293]

The SEC had one REALLY GREAT team this year. Two pretty good teams(TN & ga)

one team that was capable of competing each week(FL), and a rag tag bunch of teams that were in shambles thanks to getting caught cheating over and over again.

That being said, the SEC is STILL better than any other league.

[DoubleJ230 0]

The SEC had one REALLY GREAT team this year. Two pretty good teams(TN & ga)

one team that was capable of competing each week(FL), and a rag tag bunch of teams that were in shambles thanks to getting caught cheating over and over again.

That being said, the SEC is STILL better than any other league.

137769[/snapback]

Oh and a 9-3 team. The SEC was not down this year. Period.

WAR EAGLE!!!