Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
As an Arizona Wildcats fan and a honk for the Pac-12 Conference, it pains me to say that the SEC is pretty good.
You can hate the SEC all you want, but what is staggering is they won nine National Titles in the 15-year history of the Bowl Championship Series.
Arizona Wildcats
Personally I think they only should have eight wins. USC got shafted in 2003 when Oklahoma, who were throttled in the Big-12 Title game by Kansas State, was given a spot in the BCS title game, instead of the Pac-10 Champion Trojans.
Besides a triple overtime loss to Cal on the road, the Trojans dominated the season including a 23-0 win on the road at SEC’s No. 6 Auburn Tigers to open the year. I would have liked the Trojans chances had they played LSU in the 2003 BCS Championship.
The Trojans may not have won the BCS but the AP writers voted them the No. 1 team in the nation, giving USC a split National Championship.
That being said, eight titles would still have been a heck of a lot of rings.
There was a time not long ago when the SEC went nearly an entire decade winning the National Title every year.
But what if I told you during the BCS era that the Pac-10/12 Conference competed with the SEC at a high level head to head?
Far fetched?
Nope.
The BCS era lasted from 1998-2013. During this time period, the Pac-10/12 had a respectable 13-14 record against the best conference in college football.
Last year the College Football Playoff Era begun and the two conferences did not meet, but this year the Pac-12 has a chance to get to the .500 mark when Arizona State plays Texas A and M at Jerry Jones World in Dallas.
I can’t go with my conference in this one. I hope the Aggies teach Sparky a lesson. Here’s some stats and tidbits from the games these two great conferences had against each other, during the BCS era.
– Perennial power Alabama was 0-2 against the Pac-12 during this time frame. Both losses were to UCLA. Future Pac-12 member Utah had a convincing beat down over the Crimson Tide at the Sugar Bowl in 2009. The Utes were in the Mountain West Conference at that time.
– Half of the SEC wins over the Pac-12 came from the LSU Tigers. They were a perfect 7-0 against the West Coast and 5-0 over the Arizona schools.
– USC and UCLA were a combined 8-0 vs. the SEC.
– When both SEC and Pac-12 teams were ranked in a matchup, the Pac-12 was 3-4.
– When both were unranked, the Pac-12 was 2-1
– When the Pac-12 team was ranked and the SEC team was unranked, the Pac-12 was 6-0.
– When the SEC team was ranked and the Pac-12 team was not ranked, the Pac-12 was 2-9.
– Since 2000, the Pac-12 was 16-8-3 against the spread in games vs. the SEC, according to Gimino.
– Before Texas A and M had Johnny Football and were part of the SEC, they fell to Cal 45-10 in 2006.
– Before Missouri joined the SEC, they lost the Sun Bowl 39-38 to Oregon State in 2006.
– Oregon was 4-2 against the SEC, including a heartbreaking 22-19 loss to Auburn in the 2011 BCS Championship Game.
This season, the SEC and the Pac-12 make up 14 of the 25 teams in the first USA Today Coaches Poll.
Bear Down Pac-12!
Dec 5, 2014; Santa Clara, CA, USA; General view of the Pac-12 logo at midfield of Levi