re: "If USC wants an SEC grudge match, LSU is in the market..."

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And in the last 10 years LSU has gone to ASU, AZ, Virginia Tech, Auburn, Arkansas, Washington, & a neutral site game vs UNC. West Virginia next year....etc. That's 3 games east of the Mississippi, not one.

Well don't think because LSU has a better record against the competition that this is something that is reflective of the entire conference.

If you look at the major conferences, SEC, Big 10, Big 12, ACC, and Pac 10 and look at who the teams have played and how they fared you will be surprised. Count all the losses no matter what conference they play but only count "quality wins". Quality wins would be measured against teams in the top 5 conferences.

I think the best 3 teams in the SEC over the last 10 years has been Florida, Tennessee and LSU. These teams have either won or tied for first and second in the entire conference the most. Florida has won or finished second 6 times. Tennessee 4 times and LSU 3 times.. Even Auburn has finished 3 times as well.

Florida has an 8-5 record with wins and losses against Florida State and Miami. These are the only teams they play.

Tennessee has a 3-7 record with wins against Notre Dame and Cal but losses to Miami, Notre Dame, Cal, twice to UCLA and Wyoming..

LSU has probably the best record of anyone. They are 6-1 with wins against Va tech, Arizona twice, Oregon State, Washington, and ASU. They lost to Va tech as well.

if you add all 3 of these teams up you have a 17-13 record. That is a 56.7 winning percentage.

Now if you go to the Pac 10, things might surprise you. In the last 10 years SC has won or finished second in the league 7 times. Oregon has done this 5 times and Oregon State has done this 3 times.

SC has a 21-4 record over the last 10 years with wins against Penn State, Colorado twice, Auburn twice, Arkansas twice, Notre Dame 8 times, Virginia Tech, Nebraska twice, Ohio State twice. They have lost to Kansas State twice and Notre Dame twice.

Oregon has a 7-7 record. The have wins against Michigan twice, Mississippi State twice, Oklahoma, and Purdue twice. They have lost to Wisconsin twice, Utah, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Boise State twice.

Sadly Oregon State is only 1-8. The have a win against Penn State but have lost to Fresno State twice, LSU, Louisville, Cincinnati twice Utah, Penn State.

The top three teams against other top conferences are 29-19. This makes for a 60.4 winning percentage...

If you add in one more team for each conference that would be Auburn for the SEC and they have gone 2-6 against top conferences. Wins against Kansas State and Washington STate but losses to USC twice, Georgia TEch twice, USF and West Virginia.

That would change the record from 17-13 to 19-19 which is a 500 winning percentage.

Add the next pac 10 team and that would be Washington State. Wazzu's record is 2-11. They have wins against Colorado and Baylor but losses to Idaho, Ohio State, Notre Dame twice, Colorado, Auburn, Wisconsin, Oklahoma State, Baylor and Hawaii twice. This changes the winning percentage from 29-19 to 31-30. This winning percentage is 50.8 percent.

8 out of the 12 SEC teams have finished tied for first or second in the last 12 years. Yet 9 out of 10 pac ten teams have finished tied for first or second over the last 10 years. One could make a case that the Pac 10 is more balanced.

If you look at the bottom of the conferences over the last 10 years...Vanderbilt has finished or second to last 6 times. The second worst team is Kentucky at 4 times.

In the Pac 10, Washington has finished last or second to last 4 times with Cal 3 times (tied with Wazzu). But since Wazzu is so up and down and I have used them as one of the top 4 teams, I shall use Cal for arguments sake.

Vandy's record using the same criteria as above is 5-12. They have wins against Duke and Wake Forest. They have losses against Miami Ohio, Middle Tenn twice, TCU, Navy twice, Rutgers, Michigan, Wake Forest twice and Duke.

Kentucky has a record of 4-8. However, they have beaten Indiana 4 times. And they have lost to Louisville 6 times, Indiana once and Ohio University once.

So the bottom of your conference is 9-20. This is a winning percentage of 31%..

Washington has a 4-14 record. They have wins against the U (Miami), Colorado, Michigan, and Indiana. They have losses against the U (Miami), Ohio State twice, Fresno State, Notre Dame 4 times, Air Force, Oklahoma twice, BYU, Michigan, and LSU.

California has a 9-9 record. They have wins against Baylor, Michigan State twice,Illinois twice, Minnesota twice, Tennessee, and Maryland. They have losses against Illinois twice, Fresno State, BYU, Kansas State, Utah, Minnesota, Maryland, and Tennessee. Therefore the bottom of the Pac10 is 13-23. This is a 36% winning percentage.

So whether you look at the top or the bottom of the conference you can see that the Pac 10 is just as competitive as the SEC in Out of Conference head to head matches..

How can one make a determination that ONE league is better than the other. Settle it on the field.

The only difference is the PAC 10 doesn't PAD its win loss records. If you take those 6 teams for each conference, you can see that the SEC is 28-39
or a 41.8% winning percentage. The Pac 10 is 44-53 for a 45.4% winning percentage.

The two conferences are really close. What does jump out though is those 6 SEC teams have played 67 games against calibre competition where there is threat of loss. While the 6 Pac Ten teams have played 97 games with a threat of loss.

Again, LSU leads the charge in winning percentage with a 85% winning percentage followed by USC with 84%. But the rest of the conference isn't winning like LSU is....

And if you think I left Alabama out, I didn't. Alabama has won or finished second a total of 2 times in the last 10 years. They also only compile a 3-11 record using the same criteria with winss against Duke, Clemson, and Virginia Tech but the have amassed losses against Southern Miss, UCF, UCLA twice, Oklahoma twice, Hawaii, FSU and Louisiana Monroe...

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