(08-20-2015 01:22 PM)ECUHOO Wrote:  Since both the MT. West and the AAC are making claims to be the 6th strongest football conference behind the P-5, I decided to evaluate each conference's pre-season rankings to compare the conferences. (Yes, I know it is preseason, but it is revealing.

I used the SB Nation preseason rankings to compare the two conferences. Other pre-season rankings are close enough to the SB Nation pre-season poll to yield very similar results. I took the ranking of each team in each conference, added them together and divided that number by twelve to get the average ranking of the teams in that conference.

The rankings of the teams in the Mt. West produced a total of 1040 points which yielded an average ranking of 86. On the other hand, the AAC had a total of 928 points which yielded an average ranking of 77.

The distribution of the rankings in each conference is interesting. While Boise State is a preseason rank of 26, they only have three teams ranked under 70. The AAC has 7 teams ranked under 70.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Mt. West has 5 teams ranked over 100 while the AAC has only 3.

Without Boise State, the Mt. West would be significantly below the AAC. And given the effort and money that UConn, Tulane, Tulsa and SMU are putting into their respective programs, it is not unreasonable to believe that the gap between the two conferences will continue to spread over the years.

I will redo this analysis at the end of the year for comparison. GO AAC!!!!

It will be interesting to see how this will look in a few years. The BSU special TV deal made to keep them in the MWC means have been & will be getting a LOT more money than the other teams. This will only cause a greater divide in the MWC.