UK vs UNC could play first game of the season

I'll accept that the SEC was weak last year, and will likely be this year, but it isn't "weak most years" as compared to the other 5 major conferences. Weaker only than the ACC, by the numbers.

The average conference RPI ranking, since '99 (the past 10 seasons, for simplicity's sake) for the big 6:

ACC 2.4

Big Ten 3.9

Big 12 4.0

Big East 3.8

Pac 10 5.1

SEC 2.5

In that time, the ACC and Big East have 3 champions each, from 3 teams, the SEC 2 from 1 team, and the Big 12 and Big 10 have 1. The Pac 10 has none.

Only the Big 10, Big East and SEC have always been ranked 6th best or above (the SEC 5th and above) in each of those years. The other 3 conferences have each had years bad enough to drop out of the top 6 RPI conference rankings for the year. The Pac 10 has 3 years of the 10 tracked that the conference ended up with a ranking of 7 or lower (one year, 9th place, the lowest ranking of any of the big six leagues in that time span) In looking at last year, an admittedly weak one, the SEC still finished 4th in the league rankings.

It would seem to me, looking at these numbers, that the SEC isn't "weak most years." I also believe the Big East would rank higher overall, but it's my contention that the bottom 4 or so schools in a 16 team league really drag their numbers down. Then again, the really good Big east teams can feast on those opponents for wins, so it may be a wash in the grand scheme of things.

Chi, and others will probably come back with a "well the RPI doesn't mean anything," and it may not, but how else are you objectively rank one conference against another? It's based on wins and losses, and how the teams your conference played did in wins and losses. My comment is based on objective wins and losses, and not a "feeling" that conference x is better or worse than conference y.

Now I might accept a "weak most years" comment from an ACC fan, since they have the same conference mentality about basketball as the SEC fans do about football (and both well deserved, I might add) but coming from a Big 10 fan?

No way.

Oh,

And happy 4th, everybody.

Back to my beer.

It doesn't matter what conference UK is in...They would play this schedule regardless...Unlike some other teams, we enjoy watching our team play the best teams from across the country every year...And we like to leave our state before January...

 MZ Hammer, you need to slow down and read. What I was saying, is that your team usually needs to schedule a few or more tough opponents each year outside of the conference. Usually it's because the SEC is weak most years compared to what the other BCS conferences have to offer. There's not too many schools from the SEC other than Kentucky that have a real strong tradiiton. Outside of Floridas two recent national titles and Tennessees strong years who else really has a great tradition outside of UK ?

So in other words, the SEC is gonna be the weakest BCS conference this year. Kentucky has to make that up by scheduling tough opponents in the non-conference portion of the season, or else their schedule would probably be between 100-200 overall.

wordjockey, you can't use the conference RPI as a relevent argument. Especially because of this year. This year, the SEC was #1 in RPI even though they were the weakest of the BCS Conferences.

Now I might accept a "weak most years" comment from an ACC fan, since they have the same conference mentality about basketball as the SEC fans do about football (and both well deserved, I might add) but coming from a Big 10 fan?

Oh, and I'm not a Big 10 fan either, I'm a Big East fan.

but how else are you objectively rank one conference against another?

 Based on how many programs have history, the SEC would most definetely be the weakest BCS conference of all-time.

The Pac-10 has:

Arizona, UCLA, Stanford .

The Big East has:

Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown, Marquette, Louisville, Notre Dame, UConn, Cincy, St. Johns.

The SEC has:

Kentucky.

The Big XII has:

Kansas, Oklahoma State.

The Big 10 has:

Wisconsin, Illinois.

The ACC has:

Duke, North Carolina.

Now see why your argument holds very little water ?

You guys have the least amount of tradition out of all the BCS conferences.