Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
This season’s bowl games are an embarrassment of riches; and while most of them have little effect on the season, they do serve as a barometer of a conference’s overall strength. Bowl games cam also make or break a coach’s career. In this year’s coaching carousel even the coaches with winning records weren’t assured of job security. Kevin Sumlin of Texas A&M desperately needs a win this bowl game — his disappointing season means he is already on the hot seat. Will the SEC seal its reputation as the NCAA’s best football conference, or will another conference overshadow them?
Most college football fans would automatically expect the SEC to come out of bowl season with the best record. Vegas lines do indeed have the SEC favored in most of their matchups. However, if you look at the bowl games as a whole, the Pac-12 actually might have the best chance of winning out. The SEC has been dominant in previous years, yet this year they also have the most difficult games on the slate. So if we go by statistics, the Pac-12 is the only conference favored in every bowl game this season. All of the other Power Five conferences have at least one underdog.
The ACC is an underdog in seven games, including the playoff matchup of Clemson–Oklahoma. The Big Ten has six underdogs, including both Iowa and Michigan, and the Big 12 has four. The SEC is favored in every game, but the SEC bowl schedule is also infinitely more challenging than any other conference. This means that the chances for a loss are that much greater. Alabama plays Michigan State in the College Football Playoff semifinal, and other SEC teams are matched with three top-16 teams. It is by far the most grueling bowl schedule.
The Pac-12, on the other hand, has a slate of cupcake games in which every one of the conference’s teams are favored. This doesn’t mean that the Pac-12 is the best conference — far from it. But since this bowl season is mostly a gluttonous explosion of workaday games, the bowl games will have to serve as a consolatory expedient. In other words, most of these games will only be for postseason bragging rights and little else. The Pac-12 might just get to boast the loudest once the dust settles on this bowl season.
