Big Ten/SEC Part II

I finally got around to compiling the SEC intraconference records. The SEC became the 12-member conference it is today in 1992, one year before the Big Ten became the Big Televen.

Team	Wins	Losses	Ties	Win %
Florida	103	25	0	80.47
Tennessee	91	32	1	73.79
Auburn	77	44	2	63.41
Georgia	75	47	1	61.38
LSU	69	53	1	56.50
Alabama	62	50	1	55.31
Arkansas	56	65	2	46.34
Ole Miss	50	70	0	41.67
South Carolina	45	74	1	37.92
Miss State	41	79	1	34.30
Kentucky	33	87	0	27.50
Vanderbilt	16	104	0	13.33

Things that stick out are the degree to which Florida has dominated this conference despite the Ron Zook era (not that he isn't the answer for you Illini fans) and how poor Vanderbilt has fared (the same team that outgained Florida this year, but I digress).

Here is the cumulative chart:

	Ala	Ark	Aub	LSU	Ole M	MSU	Flor	Geor	Kent	SC	Tenn	Vand
Ala	-	8-7	6-9	7-8	13-2	11-4	4-5	2-2	3-1	4-2	4-10-1	12-0
Ark	7-8	-	6-8-1	5-10	9-6	11-3-1	0-6	1-6	2-2	9-6	3-9	3-1
Aub	9-6	8-6-1	-	9-6	12-3	10-5	4-9	8-6-1	4-0	4-0	3-3	6-0
LSU	8-7	10-5	6-9	-	9-6	14-1	4-11	2-4	7-5	2-1-1	3-4	4-0
Ole M	2-13	6-9	3-12	6-9	-	8-7	2-2	3-9	4-2	4-0	0-4	12-3
MSU	4-11	3-11-1	5-10	1-14	7-8	-	3-3	0-4	8-7	6-6	1-4	3-1
Flor	5-4	6-0	9-4	11-4	2-2	3-3	-	13-2	15-0	14-1	10-5	15-0
Geor	2-2	6-1	6-8-1	4-2	9-3	4-0	2-13	-	13-2	11-4	5-10	13-2
Kent	1-3	2-2	0-4	5-7	2-4	7-8	0-15	2-13	-	5-10	0-15	9-6
SC	2-4	6-9	0-4	1-2-1	0-4	6-6	1-14	4-11	10-5	-	2-13	13-2
Tenn	10-4-1	9-3	3-3	4-3	4-0	4-1	5-10	10-5	15-0	13-2	-	14-1
Vand	0-12	1-3	0-6	0-4	3-12	1-3	0-15	2-13	6-9	2-13	1-14	-

RIP Coach Hoepnner

Indiana Coach Terry Hoepnner passed this morning at the age of 59. He had been battling brain cancer.

Indiana is the second Big Ten team to lose a head coach on account of an early death in the last year. Randy Walker of Northwestern, who, like Hoepnner, had previously coached at Miami of Ohio, passed at the age of 52 in July of 2006.

Scheduling

College Football News ranked the Big Ten schedule strength back in March and put the Spartans on top:

Toughest schedules
Based on home games as well as who the teams play and when:
1. Michigan State
2. Michigan
3. Ohio State
4. Purdue
5. Illinois
6. Penn State
7. Indiana
8. Iowa
9. Wisconsin
10. Northwestern
11. Minnesota

Their reasoning on this?

UAB, Bowling Green, Pitt, Northwestern and Indiana over the first half of the season with three road games (Ohio State, Iowa and Purdue) along with home dates with Michigan and Penn State in the final five. Going on the road to play Notre Dame and Wisconsin in back-to-back weeks in late September isn't going to make Mark Dantonio's first year any easier.

So, I can go with that. Just the four non-conference games feature all four teams having been to bowl games at least as recently as MSU (2003). Two of them have been to BCS games within the last three years (ND, Pitt), and BGSU won 9 games in 2004, and 11 games in 2003 (all post Urban Meyer).

Basically, a Spartan team that hasn't had a winning season since 2003 has a lot to think about.

In fact, just accounting for the non-conference games (the stuff each team has some control over), there isn't another team that looks very close. Consider the the non-conferences opponents of the rest of the top half toughest skeds:

2. Michigan: All four non-conference games are at home. They get Notre Dame (MSU travels to South Bend) and also at home vs. Oregon. Oregon's likely (but not certainly) going to be tougher than Pitt, but then the remaining non-conferences are a lower division App. St and worst of the MAC Eastern Michigan. App. State won the 1-AA championship last year, so only a respectable edge to MSU with this one.

3. Ohio State: Once upon a time, the "at Washington" would have been a major concern. But that was a long time ago. The rest is all at home vs ROH (rest of Ohio): Youngstown St, Kent and Akron. When Akron's 7-5 winning season two years ago is the toughest 1-A team on your non-conference slate... a big dropoff from Michigan's non-conference, let alone Michigan State. In fact...

4. Purdue: Notre Dame at home. Central Michigan. At Toledo and Eastern Illinois. That's actually two decent MAC teams, though Toledo comes off an uncharacteristic down year, and Notre Dame. Unless Washington really turns it on this year, there's a damned good chance that two and maybe all three of Purdue's 1-A non-conference opponents end the year looking better than everybody on Ohio State's non-conference slate. I'd rank them just under Michigan and barely ahead of Ohio State if this were based solely on non-conference schedules. The wildcard is whether Youngstown State will be cruising for another 1-AA title game or rebuilding.

5. Illinois: Missouri, at Syracuse, Western Illinois, Ball State. Yawn.

6. Penn State: Notre Dame, Florida International, Buffalo, at Temple. While there are no 1-AA's in this bunch, everybody but Notre Dame is basically much more of a creampuff than the two teams that played for the 1-AA championship last year: App. State (which plays Michigan) and Youngstown St. (which plays Ohio State). It's quite a stunt to avoid 1-AA's, yet somehow find three 1-A's that are weaker than not just one, but TWO of the 1-AA's scheduled to play other teams in your own conference.

And, uh, that "at Temple" game. I've seen how well the three-toed sloth kitties travel when the distance is East Lansing. I'm betting that "at Temple" is basically another home game.

Big Ten/SEC

I was actually working on this post prior to Phil Fulmer's excoriation of the Big Ten's competitiveness. While discussing a potential college football playoff our Krispy Kreme-loving friend took a poke at the Big Ten and Michigan:

The regular-season conference schedules we play in the SEC are very difficult. Maybe some of the other conferences have teams like Michigan that play just two or three tough conference games a year. Maybe a plus-one playoff concept would make sense.

I have not looked at the SEC numbers yet and hope to do so soon. But here are the Big Ten intraconference overall standings since 1993 (Penn State's first year):

Overall standings since 1993

TEAM	Wins	Losses	Ties	Win %
Ohio State	85	26	1	76.34
Michigan	85	27	0	75.89
Penn State	69	43	0	61.61
Wisconsin	66	43	3	60.27
Iowa	56	55	1	50.45
Purdue	54	55	3	49.55
Michigan State	51	60	1	45.98
Northwestern	46	66	0	41.07
Minnesota	38	74	0	33.93
Illinois	34	77	1	30.80
Indiana	27	85	0	24.11

And here are the various teams records against each other during that time:

	IL	IN	IA	MI	MSU	MN	NU	OSU	PSU	PU	WI
IL	- - -	7-5	5-7	2-8	1-9	4-6	6-8	3-9	1-9	3-7	2-9-1
IN	5-7	- - -	6-6	0-10	2-10	5-5	3-7	0-12	0-10	4-10	2-8
IA	7-5	6-6	- - -	2-8	6-4	10-4	6-6	1-9	6-4	6-3-1	6-6
MI	8-2	10-0	8-2	- - -	10-4	11-1	7-3	7-7	9-3	8-2	7-3
MSU	9-1	10-2	4-6	4-10	- - -	5-5	6-4	2-8	3-11	4-7-1	4-6
MN	6-4	5-5	4-10	1-11	5-5	- - -	5-5	1-9	4-6	3-9	4-10
NU	8-6	7-3	6-6	3-7	4-6	5-5	- - -	1-9	3-9	4-8	5-7
OSU	9-3	12-0	9-1	7-7	8-2	9-1	9-1	- - -	9-5	8-2	5-4-1
PSU	9-1	10-0	4-6	3-9	11-3	6-4	9-3	5-9	- - -	8-2	4-6
PU.	7-3	10-4	3-6-1	2-8	7-4-1	9-3	8-4	2-8	2-8	- - -	4-7-1
WI	9-2-1	8-2	6-6	3-7	6-4	10-4	7-5	4-5-1	6-4	7-4-1	- - -

And here are the bowl results of SEC/Big 10 contests since 1993:

1993 season
Citrus: Penn State 31 Tennessee 13

1994 season
Citrus: Alabama 24 Ohio State 17

1995 season
Independence: LSU 45 Michigan State 26
Outback: Penn State 41 Auburn 14
Citrus: Tennessee 20 Ohio State 14

1996 season
Outback: Alabama 17 Michigan 14
Citrus: Tennessee 48 Northwestern 28

1997 season
Outback: Georgia 33 Wisconsin 6
Citrus: Florida 21 Penn State 6

1998 season
Outback: Penn State 26 Kentucky 14
Citrus: Michigan 45 Arkansas 31

1999 season
Outback: Georgia 28 Purdue 25
Citrus: Michigan State 37 Florida 34
Orange: Michigan 35 Alabama 34

2000 season
Outback: South Carolina 24 Ohio State 7
Citrus: Michigan 31 Auburn 28

2001 season
Outback: South Carolina 31 Ohio State 28
Citrus: Tennessee 45 Michigan 17 (OUCH)
Sugar: LSU 47 Illinois 34

2002 season
Music City: Minnesota 29 Arkansas 14
Outback: Michigan 38 Florida 30
Capital One (Citrus): Auburn 13 Penn State 9

2003 season
Music City: Auburn 28 Wisconsin 14
Outback: Iowa 34 Florida 17
Capital One (Citrus): Georgia 34 Purdue 27

2004 season
Music City: Minnesota 20 Alabama 16
Outback: Georgia 24 Wisconsin 21
Capital One (Citrus): Iowa 30 LSU 25

2005 season
Outback: Florida 31 Iowa 24
Capital One (Citrus): Wisconsin 24 Auburn 10

2006 season
Outback: Penn State 20 Tennessee 10
Capital One (Citrus): Wisconsin 17 Arkansas 14
BCS Championship: Florida 41 Ohio State 14

So, since 1993, the Big Ten is 15-18 (45.45%) versus the SEC in bowls and 1-2 in BCS bowls. If, as coach Fulmer suggests, Michigan's hard 2-3 games are eliminated (Wisconsin, OSU, and PSU according to the league standings not their results versus Michigan) and Michigan itself is eliminated, then the Big Ten is 5-6. Based on overall Big Ten standings, 5th place Iowa is 2-1, 6th place Purdue is 0-2, 7th place Michigan State is 1-1, 8th place Northwestern is 0-1, 9th place Minnesota (which only wins 34% of its Big Ten games) is 2-0, and 10th place Illinois is 0-1.

I would imagine that if Fulmer were correct over time the "dregs" of the Big 10 would be getting crushed by the SEC and its "superior" depth. But the facts don't show this. The "dregs" of the Big 10 seem to be doing just fine.

Perhaps Coach Fulmer should stick to arguing that Peyton Manning deserved the Heisman. That is a far more subjective argument and those annoying facts aren't as likely to make him look foolish.