SEC vs Top 25 Last 5 Years

by Mo Johnson
(SEC Land )

Several of you saw this story that came out last week. It seems to indicate that the SEC has done poorly vs top-25 the past five years.

But, there's 2 big flaws in that conclusion.

1. Most losses by SEC teams to Top 25 teams are against other SEC teams.

2. Obviously, not all teams in the conference are top-25 caliber programs. So, at the bottom of the conference, MSU, VD, KY, Ark, rake up a 9 - 74 record vs top-25. Tough to overcome that.

I suspect all the other conferences have similar records, probably worse, vs top-25.

What I'd love to see is an analysis comparing the records of the conferences vs top-25. Again, only 1/6 of NCAA football teams are top-25 -- so, no conference will even have a winning record vs top 25. But, which has the best? I'd like to know. Please comment below if you know.

OK, here's the raw numbers of each SEC team vs top 25, last 5 years.

Florida – 14-9 (.609)
LSU – 13-11 (.542)
Alabama – 10-12 (.455)
Auburn – 8-12 (.400)
Georgia – 8-12 (.400)
Tennessee – 5-17 (.227)
Ole Miss – 4-14 (.222)
South Carolina – 5-19 (.208)
Arkansas – 3-20 (.130)
Kentucky – 2-17 (.105)
Vanderbilt – 2-17 (.105)
Mississippi State 2-20 (.091)


You can see NC Alabama is 10-12 during that period, but the Crimson Tide are 7-2 over the last two seasons and 5-0 during their 2009 national championship season.

Georgia has gone the other way. The Bulldogs are 8-12, which includes a 2-6 mark over the last two seasons.

Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee are all winless the last two seasons against teams that finished in the Top 25 of the final polls.

It is troubling to me that a team like Tennessee, which I think should be a top-25 team, has a 5-17 record vs top 25. This is exactly why 2 years ago we supported the early retirement of phil fulmer.