Welcome back sports fans. With all the controversy surrounding the Playoff Committee’s choices tonight (although Selection Sunday is the REAL one) brought on, in part, from the “our team is better than that team” and “our conference has to try really hard” type stuff. The politicking is sometimes whining, sometimes poignant, always entertaining. I’ve said before, it’s not my call and with this being the first year for a 12-team conference, nobody else knows either.
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But the GCR can and does rank the teams (see last Sunday’s post) and the conferences (see this post). Each month, I’ve ranked every conference (even considering the 2 Independent groups (FCS and FBS) as conferences) using the average rank as the indicator. This blog is for the final regular season (not counting Army/Navy) rankings, and there’ll be one more in January after the eventual champions (FCS and FBS) are crowned. Let’s start with the FCS.
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The Missouri Valley Football Conference which has powerhouses North Dakota St, South Dakota St, South Dakota, and this year’s 4th place team, Illinois St (who won their first-round game), find themselves at the top of the FCS heap. Not so privately, I’ve wanted the 4 Dakotas to join the MAC so that they could play some bowl games (and regular season games) against some of the college schools. I think they would elevate that conference (see below). Likewise, the Montanas would help rebuild the now weakening Mountain West conference when nearly half the teams switch to the PAC (still not) 12 next season. Delaware is listed as the best Colonial team, but they are ineligible for playoff consideration because they are promoting to Conference USA (along with Missouri St of the MVFC) next year.
| Conf Rank | Conf (Teams) | Record | NC Record | Avg Rank | Avg SOS | Best Team |
| 1 | Missouri Valley (11) | 68-64 (515) | 24-20 (545) | 186.5 | 187.5 | South Dakota St (10-2/124) |
| 2 | Colonial (16) | 102-93 (523) | 37-28 (569) | 189.9 | 193.3 | Delaware (9-2/139) |
| 3 | Southern (9) | 49-57 (462) | 14-22 (389) | 194.0 | 171.1 | Mercer (10-2/130) |
| 4 | Southland (9) | 49-59 (454) | 17-27 (386) | 195.0 | 185.1 | Incarnate Word (10-2/133) |
| 5 | Ivy (8) | 44-36 (550) | 16-8 (667) | 196.1 | 223.4 | Harvard (8-2/144) |
| 6 | United Athletic (9) | 52-58 (473) | 16-22 (421) | 198.6 | 179.8 | Tarleton (10-3/157) |
| 7 | Big Sky (12) | 71-73 (493) | 23-25 (479) | 198.6 | 198.8 | Montana St (12-0/93) |
| 8 | Pioneer (11) | 63-62 (504) | 20-19 (513) | 198.6 | 228.6 | Butler (9-3/145) |
| 9 | Big South/ Ohio Valley (9) | 51-60 (459) | 15-24 (385) | 199.8 | 192.1 | Tennessee Martin (9-4/153) |
| 10 | SWAC (12) | 65-78 (455) | 15-28 (349) | 200.0 | 200.9 | Jackson St (10-2/129) |
| 11 | MEAC (6) | 32-38 (457) | 17-23 (425) | 205.0 | 214.0 | South Carolina St (9-2/138) |
| 12 | Patriot (7) | 36-47 (434) | 15-26 (366) | 207.6 | 201.6 | Lehigh (9-3/150) |
| 13 | FCS Indies (2) | 10-12 (455) | 9-11 (450) | 211.5 | 215.5 | Merrimack (5-6/202) |
| 14 | Northeast (8) | 39-54 (419) | 14-29 (326) | 218.0 | 217.3 | Duquesne (8-3/154) |
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And now the big boys: The FBS. It should come as no surprise that the SEC wins this year after falling to the Big Ten last season. 13 of the 16 teams are going bowling (equal to the ACC who has one more team) and Auburn was a win away from making it 14. Another bit of evidence not in the chart below is that the SEC was 13-7 (.650) against the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and Notre Dame – the Core 4. The ACC was 9-17 (3-8 vs the SEC and 0-5 against the Irish). The Big 12 was 5-8 (2-2 against the SEC). The Big Ten was 6-9 (.400). Notre Dame was 8-0 (1.000) as its only loss came against N Illinois of the MAC. One final point: the SEC’s 16 teams averaged 7.44 victories each. Not counting the 3 independents larger influenced by a very good Notre Dame team, the next best conference (Big Ten) averaged 6.89 wins – more than half a win per team! Here is this year’s FBS regular season:
| Rank | Conf Rank | Record | NC Record | Avg Rank | Avg SOS | Best Team | Bowl Teams |
| 1 | SEC (16) | 119-73 (620) | 55-9 (859) | 35.8 | 34.3 | Texas (11-1/2) | 13 (813) |
| 2 | Big Ten (18) | 124-92 (574) | 43-11 (796) | 39.5 | 33.8 | Oregon (12-0/1) | 12 (667) |
| 3 | Big 12 (16) | 107-85 (557) | 33-11 (750) | 45.1 | 35.9 | BYU (10-2/10) | 9 (563) |
| 4 | ACC (17) | 115-89 (564) | 47-21 (691) | 46.1 | 37.0 | SMU (11-1/5) | 13 (765) |
| 5 | Indies (3) | 21-15 (583) | 20-14 (588) | 68.0 | 87.3 | Notre Dame (11-1/4) | 2 (667) |
| 6 | SUN (14) | 84-83 (503) | 28-27 (509) | 90.8 | 93.0 | Louisiana (10-2/34) | 8 (571) |
| 7 | American (14) | 83-83 (500) | 27-27 (500) | 91.0 | 98.6 | Army (10-1/16) | 8 (571) |
| 7 | Pac 12 (2) | 13-11 (542) | 12-10 (545) | 91.0 | 95.0 | Wash-ington St (8-4/74) | 1 (500) |
| 9 | Mountain West (12) | 70-75 (483) | 28-33 (459) | 98.8 | 101.3 | Boise St (11-1/13) | 5 (417) |
| 10 | MAC (12) | 68-76 (472) | 20-28 (417) | 101.3 | 103.8 | Ohio (9-3/64) | 7 (583) |
| 11 | C-USA (10) | 53-66 (445) | 13-26 (333) | 103.3 | 109.1 | Sam Houston (9-3/61) | 4 (400) |
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Interestingly, Sam Houston had the best GCR mark in Conference USA but came in 3rd due to a head-to-head loss to W Kentucky and will not be in the conference final this weekend.
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That’s it for this installment. Thank you for reading and sharing with others. Let me know through comments on the web page or on Facebook what you think of the GCR and how we can improve it, G
