With the completion of the 2008 bowl season it is time to update that stat that kept appearing on TV screens over the past month - "The Big Ten leads 8-7 in head-to-head competition". Now that should read 9-9.
Jan 12, 2008
SEC/B10 challenge by: Anonymous
Shoot, for the next 5 years, the conference ought to agree to a challenge series. Would require B10 to get 12 teams. Each team would play a foe out of the other conf. Let each match up be decided by conference ranking. SEC 1 plays B10 1, SEC 2 plays B10 2, etc etc. Sub it in for a non-conf game
Dec 06, 2007
Winner Breaks the Tie by: Tex/1st-N-Goal
The BCS Championship Game will determine which conference--between the SEC and Big 10--has won more titles, since 1936.
After years of serious StatResearch on national champions, all levels, not just Major College/NCAA 1A/Bowl Subdivision both major conferences of the above have each won the National Championship in 14 seasons.
Counting seasons 1936 forward, the year of the initial AP Poll, through the 2006 season, the results show:
Using the NCAA accepted as official sources: AP, since 1936; UP/UPI, 1950-95; FWAA (football writers), 1954; NFFHF (football foundation), 1959; USA Today, 1982 and finally the BCS, 1998.
The results for the Big 10/SEC National Champions reveal:
Big 10 Champions in: 1936-40-41-42*-48-54*-57*-58-60-61*-68*-70*-97-2001*. (14)
SEC Champions in: 1951-57-58*-60-61-65-66-73-78-79-80-92-96-98*. (14)
*Ohio State or LSU was No. 1
The above does not include the 1952 season when Michigan State was not an official member of the Big 10; or 1964 when Arkansas was in the SWC; or Penn State's title of 1982 and 1986, when it played as an Independent.
What better way to break the tie, than the first ever game between the two major conference powers where the winner was either an SEC or Big 10 team.