If this website is primarily about why the SEC is the best college sports conference, then this page is the very heart of the website.
At the moment, the SEC has the College Football National Champion (LSU) and both the Men's and Women's College Basketball National Champions (Florida and Tennessee).
And, the SEC also won the prior year's college B-ball and Football Championships (Florida took both). So, we've got 2 straight national championships in the top 2 college sports in America!
Given that Football and Basketball are the "biggest" college sports in America, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the SEC is the best sports conference in America.
But, if you want to look deeper, and consider the other sports, then this is the place for you.
This page provides, in a statistical format, a summary of the information that all the other pages in the site provide.
This website provides a review and summary of all 12 sports the SEC competes in at the NCAA level.
Thanks to ukathletics.com for all photos above except for #2. Thanks to BJ Millican at flickr.com/photos/bjmillican for that one. All rights are reserved for these photos.
Each of the 12 sports pages compares and ranks the major college sports conferences in the sport. If you look at each of the 12 pages, you will find SEC college sports ranked #1 in eight sports, #2 in two sports, and #4 in two sports.
We simply prepared a spreadsheet giving a conference six points for every first place ranking, five points for a second place ranking, etc, all the way to 1 point for a sixth place ranking.
Of course this site is dedicated to the college sports fan (especially the SEC version). Therefore, in order to make the analysis meaningful we need to value the sports differently based on fan interest. In other words, it would not be fair to award a conference the same number of points for being #1 in football as for being #1 in volleyball. That's silly. Football is obviously much more important than volleyball in determining which conference is the overall best college sports conference.
So, we awarded a multiplier to each sport, depending on its relative significance in the world of sports, particularly to sports fans.
After much discussion, we determined that football should receive a multiplier of 4, basketball -- 3, baseball -- 2, track and field -- 1.5, swimming and diving -- 1.5, and the rest of the sports (tennis, golf, gymnastics, softball, soccer, and volleyball) each received a multiplier of 1.
So, to find the score for a particular conference in a particular sport, we simply multiplied the rank points by the multiplier. For instance, since the SEC is ranked as the #1 football conference, its score for football is 24 (6 x 4).
Then we added up the total points earned in all sports for each conference and obtained an overall score that represents a comprehensive and objective opinion of which is the best college sports conference.
So, without further ado, here we go. Envelope please....
The conferences and their point totals are ranked as follows:
1. SEC (100 points)
2. ACC (65.5 points; does not participate in gymnastics)
3. Pac 10 (64 points)
4. Big-12 (59.5 points)
5. Big Ten (55 points)
As you can see, yes, indeed, the SEC is the best college sports conference.
If you want to see the actual spreadsheet and lots more info, get your copy of the 2007 SEC Sports Fan Brag Book by signing up for the SEC Sports Fan Newsletter. [Note the numbers are slightly off as we only recently added Women's Basketball as its own sport.]
The Big East did not rank in enough sports to warrant a full analysis. However, it is worth noting that the Big East ranks #3 in basketball and #6 in football. Also, after their 5-0 performance in 2006 football bowl games -- they may be moving up in the rankings next year.
The Mountain West ranked 4th in gymnastics, primarily because of the Utah Utes.
Obviously the sports world is constantly changing and the scores listed above are subject to change. However, they are accurate as of January 2007 and because they represent such a comprehensive view, they are unlikely to significantly change before the 2008 update.
In fact, it will be difficult for another conference to overtake the SEC because of the "Virtuous Circle of College Sports" that supports the SEC. The virtuous circle is composed of three categories that each support and lead to the other. The three categories are:
Fans
Money
Wins
I don't know which comes first, but all three categories feed on the others. You need fans, money and wins to be the best. The fans give you money; the money gives (well supports anyway) wins; and wins will increase your fan support ... and around and around we go.
We'd love to hear your comments and/or opinions. If you submit them here, other visitors can read them, rate them and comment on them. An e-mail address is not required.
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Pac-10 is the Number One Sports Conference
Best college sports conference? Dream on. Here are the all time national championship facts. PAC-10 -359 total championships. SEC 175. Sorry, you ...
This conference comparison page is an absolute joke.
The only way the sec would obtain a point total like that is with the mathematical formula this site came up with that weighs heavily on the sports the ...
What about other sports?
Not rated yet
What about Wrestling, Lacrosse, and Hockey, for instance?
Editor's Note
Good point. But, the SEC just doesn't compete at the NCAA level in those ...