Conference worse or better this year ?

[RetroVK]

Just seeing if we can get a guage on where the conferences stand if we each list which conferences have improved as a whole year over year and which ones have gotten worse. Please list each conference and whether you believe it has improved or gotten worse. I guess SAME is an option but very unlikely. Bold the conference you believe has improved the most and the conference you believe has regressed the most.

SEC --Improved
Big Ten -- gotten worse
Big 12 --improved
ACC - improved
mwc - improved
wac - gotten worse
mac - improved
pac 10 - gotten worse
conf usa - gotten worse
sunbelt -gotten worse
big east - gotten worse

 

[Dmoney416]

SEC - Improved
Big Ten - Worse
Big 12 - Improved
ACC - Improved
MWC -Improved
WAC - Worse
MAC - Improved
PAC 10 - Worse
Conf USA - Worse
Sun Belt - Improved
Big East - Same

 

[Seabass]

I haven't done enough research, and I don't really do things like this anyway, so I'm not going to give a list...

But IMO, Dmoney, the Big East is not the same - it has regressed. West Virginia is going to be slightly worse than last year. louisville, who underachieved, is still probably going to be worse this year. UConn, who overachieved, might actually be better - but because their games aren't all that winnable, they will look worse. Cincinnati will be worse this year unless they can replace Mauk's heart and reliability, not just his talent.

 

[RetroVK]

Yeah the big east is the one that is closest to fitting the "same" category i think. i can see an argument to be made either way. i went with worse because i think they got worse at the top more than they got better at the middle and bottom. Still , that conference is a close call.

 

[lindetrain]

Louisville will be better...

 

[sportjunky]

first gut reaction was to agree that the Pac will def be worse but going through the programs, i actually think the conference will improve. only two programs that i see taking a clear step down are oregon and wazzu due to the losses of dixon & brink. other than those two, the way i see it:

sc - d will be a year older and better and sanchez could be an upgrade over booty

ucla - the upgrade of chow and neuheisal from dorrell can't be explained in words.

udub - not a fan of Ty, I actually consider him to be a terrible coach, but Locker will be a year older and they will go as far as he takes them. also, I doubt the schedule will be as brutal as it was last year

asu - second year of the erickson regime. Rudy will be back and healthy, don't really see why they should take a step back

uofa - stoopid is a bad coach, they might manage to acheive mediocrity this season, which would be a step up (tuitama has suffered a high # of concussions. he could be one hit away from retirment. his health will determine what type of season they have)

cal - Riley should be named the starter which will be a huge step up from longshore (on one leg or two). Djax and Hawk are gone but Tedford has assembled the most offensive talent other than sc in the conference.

furd - harbaugh and the program are only going to improve

osu - honeslty i know nothing about them. riley some how gets the job done with smoke & mirrors every year.


thats just my very brief / vague take on each team in the conference. like i said above, my initial thought was that the conference would be worse but the more I think about it, top to bottom, it should actually end up being better.

 

[RetroVK]

well since sportjunly posted this i can give you my basic up or downs for these teams. Lindetrain is doing conference breakdowns , so i will wait for his pac 10 thread to give more detailed thoughts...

usc -- finished the year as one of the top four teams in the country , so while i think this team is in fact slightly better , it is hard to be much better than where they finished last year , even if they were to win the title.

ucla - i think this team is considerably worse, though agree that there is great room for improvement and the new staff is more likely to get the most out of its players. 9 returning starters , new systems and injured qb

washington -- yeah they are better. check out their roster as well ... most of this team returns next year and this team makes noise in the pac10 again.... a year away but definitely improved.

ASU -- On paper they look better , but this team got so lucky last year that i dont think they improve at all in wins. The offensive line does not look promising.

arizona - hard to tell , depends on the development of young defense. offense will be solid. they should be about the same though for different reasons than last year.

oregon -- when healthy last year they were an elite team. lose the stud qb and stud rb. Take a small step back this year, but still good. Thought this team was way overrated last preseason and i was wrong.

Cal -- i guess improved. But only because they were so banged up last year ... the talent level a year ago was better.

stnaford - bleh. improved but not by much. usc moneyline

oregon state -- lost every starting dl and linebacker from team that was number 1 vs the rush in the nation last year. ouch. Second best team in the pac10 over the last two combined seasons and now will be lucky to hit 6 wins.

 

[Blue_Chip]

SEC has two legitimate national title contenders and another couple darkhorse title contenders. They were the best conference last season yet they found a way to improve, and of course are still the top conference.

MAC - Improved
CUSA - Regressed
SBC - the best teams in the Sun Belt may have regressed, but as a whole I think the Sun Belt is stronger

 

[STEED]

kyle,

you really think the MAC has improved? not debating, rather questioning and seeing why. i know its a smaller time conference (lot of schools centered in Ohio here) and wanted to hear what you have to say about it...

also, is it possible for the Big 10 to get worse than last year? ehhh, i dunno

 

[RetroVK]

Well , i believe the MAC is considerably better mostly because of the sheer number of returning starters, retunring qbs and the fact that the league was down a bit last year. Just look at the returning starters real quick ...

c mich 16 lefevour , w mich 17 Hiller , kent st 16 edelman , miami oh 17 raudabaugh ? , e mich 15 schmitt , northern illinois 21 nicholson , ballst 18 davis , toledo 15 opelt , bowling green 17 sheehan , buffalo 18 willy , temple 22 dimichelle, akron 13 jacquemain, ohio 13 and is only team to not return their starting qb in the whole league. Though there are two qb's who might be fighting for that starting spot ... raudabaugh the most likely to lose.

That is just a crapload of returning starters for one league and with all of them basically returning the qb's , ,,,, i think that is big too. How could this league not be better ??

Here is why the big ten is down

ohio state -- better team on paper but they went to the title game last year so only true way to improve for them would be to win the national title. tough check to cash.

michigan -- big step down in my opinion. Lost a lot of great talent to nfl draft and graduation , some more talent to transfers , and has to learn new schemes with players not recruited to run those schemes. The defense will be salty but hard to expect them to be anywhere near as good as last year

illinois -- clearly not as loaded as last year. Some key defensive losses and mendanhall loss is painful

penn state -- Should be slightly improved but not by much. linebacker injury hurt in spring.

iowa -- most improved team in my estimation of the entire conference. drooling to bet this team this year,

indiana -- seem to be improved on the lines ... which is the most important thing in cfb but they lost a lot of skill talent. they take a step back and their schedule does not line up well either.

purdue -- obviously going to be very down compared to last years squad. i could easily see this team sitting at 1-6 when they host minnesota on homecoming mid october.

northwestern -- another improved big ten team i will be looking to back in some good situations.

michigan st -- going to be worse defensively this year. Not a fan of either the ol or dl of this team really . How much of that dantonio magic motivation is going to still be there ?? Another team where the schedule breaks terribly for them too. So even if they are as good as last year ... and i guess that isnt out of the question , it wont show in the record.
They also have some serious depth issues , most notably at qb.

wisconsin -- i think they are slightly improved but most people would argue the other way i imagine. Very dangerous team.

minnesota -- yeah a little better than last year , big whoop.

So i think the bigten has gotten worse because two of the major programs that were really good last year have dropped considerably in my estimation. Michigan and Illinois. Penn state and wisconsin i think are both roughly where they were last year, though a little improved. Purdue takes a significant fall this year , i think. michigan st projects out at 5-8 to me , So i guess i weighed where the conference powers are this year compared to last ... sure iowa and northwestern look to be very improved but we arent looking at those two teams as likely opponents to usc in a rose bowl ( illinois ) or florida in the capital one ( mich ) like last year. minnesota and indiana look like dog poo. The conference from top to middle will be more competitive but there arent nearly as many elite teams as last year.

 

[Dmoney416]

I haven't done enough research, and I don't really do things like this anyway, so I'm not going to give a list...

But IMO, Dmoney, the Big East is not the same - it has regressed. West Virginia is going to be slightly worse than last year. louisville, who underachieved, is still probably going to be worse this year. UConn, who overachieved, might actually be better - but because their games aren't all that winnable, they will look worse. Cincinnati will be worse this year unless they can replace Mauk's heart and reliability, not just his talent.

It might have been a homer opinion. However, I think that USF (I think they'll win the league) is significantly improved, I also think that Louisville and Syracuse will be a little better. UConn could be better (or the same) but could sport a worse record. Pittsburgh will obviously be better. West Va and Rutgers will likely have some setbacks, but both teams will be solid. Cincy without Mauk will leave them with some adjustments, but they return a fantastic WR core, one of the nations best punters, and a bunch of experience on D.

IMO, I think it evens out pretty well. We'll see how it all plays out in a couple of months. :shake:

 

[TheGarfather]

Not that records are necessarily a reflection of quality, but I have the BE dropping 3 net wins this season.

Throwing out bowl records to get an even 12 games for comparison:

Cincinnati 8-4 (-1)
Connecticut 7-5 (-2)
Louisville 6-6 (0)
Pittsburgh 7-5 (+2)
Rutgers 7-5 (0)
South Florida 9-3 (0)
Syracuse 2-10 (0)
West Virginia 8-4 (-2)

 

[Dmoney416]

Not sure it matters for your comparison (given that you want to judge teams evenly on a 12-game sched), but Cincy plays 13 games due to the late season trip to Hawaii.

 

[TheGarfather]

I ignored EKU and graded Hawaii as a win.

 

[RetroVK]

by the looks of things , steele has the teams in the MAC about a field goal better on average than last year. wow. better sure... but wow.