(12-01-2019 08:01 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote: It was a down year for the ACC, but this on-going rhetoric of "awful" is going too far. Many ACC teams started the season with a loss thanks to playing conference games in the first couple of weeks in support of the launch of the ACC Network. Meanwhile, teams in other conferences were getting fat off of cupcake wins. So when conference play began in earnest, those teams had zero or one loss and were ranked. Now that the season is over and everyone has played their full conference schedule, the picture is a bit different...
P5 Teams with 8-4 record or better:
ACC (4): Clemson, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
Big XII (4): Oklahoma, Baylor, Oklahoma St, Kansas St
Big Ten (7): Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana
Pac-12 (3): Oregon, Utah, USC
SEC (5): Georgia, Florida, LSU, Alabama, Auburn
Independent (1): Notre Dame
Total P5 teams with fewer than 5 losses: 24
source: https://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/2019/...12119.html
The Big Ten has great depth this year, but the rest are about equal in terms of depth (not trying to compare Auburn to Wake Forest here, but the NUMBER of teams is comparable in every P5 league not named Big Ten). Would I have liked to see more 10-win teams in the ACC? SURE! But 9-3 and 8-4 isn't exactly trash...
Make 9-3 or better the parameters and watch just how different the rest become. You should have majored in propaganda. I've never seen a poster anywhere that finagles the numbers any better than you do in the effort to make their conference look better by comparison.
At 9-3 it breaks down like this:
ACC (2): Clemson 12-0, Virginia 9-3 / Total wins among the top two 21
B12 (2): Oklahoma 11-1, Baylor 11-1 / Total wins among the top two 22
PAC (2): Utah 11-1, Oregon 10-2 / Total wins among the top two 21
SEC (5): L.S.U. 12-0, Georgia 11-1, Florida 10-2, Alabama 10-2, Auburn 9-3 / total wins among the top two 23
B1G (6): Ohio State 12-0, Penn State 10-2, Wisconsin 10-2, Minnesota 10-2, Michigan 9-3, Iowa 9-3 / total wins among the top two 22
This breakdown shows the division in strength between the conferences. Of course lowering the bar makes it look more equal.
Of course if you make the criteria 10-2 or better it breaks down again:
ACC (1)
Bi12 (2)
PAC (2)
SEC (4)
B1G (4)
And for purposes of discussing the Orange Bowl this is where the rubber meets the road. Since Clemson will be in the CFP that leaves the Orange Bowl sucking wind!