Commentary: October 6

The subject of this week's commentary is the relative ranking of the conferences. Here then is my ranking of the strength of each conference:

1. Big Ten. Yes, I too am alarmed to discover that the Big Ten is currently the strongest conference in Division I-A. The Big Ten claims the number 4, 5, 6, 15, 16, and 23 ranked team in this week's SJS Rankings. Although the process of interconference play has only begun to weed through the midwestern schools, early in the season, the conference looks strong from top to bottom. Although Purdue (3-1) is an admittedly dubious 23rd ranked team this week, they could easily be replaced there by Wisconsin (4-1), on the strength of a last second win (they are getting good at that) against Northwestern, who, along with Minnesota, is a fairly strong second-division club. Only Illinois and Indiana truly suck; the truly sucks list is longer in every other conference.

2. SEC. When I started this ranking, I thought it would reveal the SEC in a down-year situation. However, they turn out to be solidly the number 2 conference. SEC teams rank number 3, 10, 12, 13, and 14 teams in this week's SJS rankings, and both Alabama (3-2) and Kentucky (3-2) received votes in the AP Poll. No team in the west sports worse than a 3-2 mark, and South Carolina has to be one of the better 2-3 teams in the country. The eastern division is bolstered by a surprising Kentucky and a surprising Georgia.

3. PAC-10. I had expected to make this my #2 conference, given the fact that PAC-10 teams rank 7, 9, 17, and 19 in the SJS rankings, and have several other strong teams like Arizona State (3-2) and Oregon (3-2). But the failure of the Pac-10 to win some out of conference games (USC vs. FSU, UCLA vs. Tennessee, Stanford vs. North Carolina, and Arizona vs. Ohio State), with all deference to Stanford (beating Notre Dame) and Arizona State (beating Miami), militates their current position.

4. ACC. Maryland, Wake Forest, and Duke suck but, to be fair, appear not to suck as bad as usual. Duke had some nice wins over the service academies, and Wake snagged Northwestern again this year. And the Terps are making progress. The middle division of the ACC is quite strong, with Virginia, Clemson, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina State having squads that should end up being ranked between 15 and 35 nationally. I currently have only two teams from the ACC ranked, but they are two undefeated powerhouses: FSU (number 1) and North Carolina (number 8). Truth be told, the ACC and Pac-10 are neck and neck.

5. Big 12. Now we come to a big dropoff. The Big 12 does have 4 solid squads in the SJS rankings, including a scary Nebraska (4-0, number 2), and a less scary Texas A&M (4-0, 11), Oklahoma State (5-0, 22), and Colorado (2-2, 24). Some like Kansas (4-1) and Kansas State (3-1), but I think these teams are posers. Colorado, and worse, Texas, are huge disappointments. Oklahoma is a decent middle division team in beating non-conference foes Syracuse and Louisville, but lost games against the beatable California and Northwestern. The rest of the conference- Missouri, Baylor, Texas Tech, and Iowa State all rank in the bottom half of Division I-A teams.

6. WAC. The WAC is the largest conference with 16 teams, so their "sucks" list is quite long. With 3 teams in the SJS rankings (Air Force, 18; BYU, 21; Wyoming, 25), and a couple of other teams that are very good (Colorado State, 3-2; New Mexico, 5-0), they are still a force for the alliance to reckon with. They seems to be less dangerous this year than last, certainly.

7. MAC. I think I even mean this, on the strength of Miami of Ohio's win over Virginia Tech. Although it would be a stretch to rank any of these teams higher than about 40th, this conference can compete with teams like Miami (4-1, beat Virginia Tech), Marshall (4-1, beat Army), Ohio (5-1, beat Maryland), Toledo (4-0, beat Purdue), and Western Michigan (3-3, beat Temple). Yes, this conference also sports some of the worst teams in the nation (Kent, Akron, Ball State, Northern Illinois, one or two of those Michigan teams).

8. Big East. Okay, maybe a hair better than the MAC, but what's going on? Temple is tied for second place. With only nine teams, this conference has too many patsies. And it appears that the day is coming when the parentheses are becoming meaningful... it used to be if Miami lost 47-0, you didn't need the parentheses to tell you it must be Miami (Ohio). Now, that (Fla) is helpful. Only one team is ranked (West Virginia), and the GOOD teams continue to disappoint (Syracuse, Virginia Tech).

9. Conference USA. The sophomore slump has hit the upset conference. Southern Miss is the only strong team, but even they have thus far failed to pull one out of their ass, a Southern Miss trademark. Credit for a good win over Illinois, though. The only other team with a winning record is Cincinnati, which may indeed prove to be a top 30 or 35 team with big wins over Kansas (34-7), Boston College (24-7), Memphis (20-17), and Tulsa (34-24). Tulane (2-2) beat Army 41-0. Unfortunately, the occasionally strong Houston, East Carolina, Memphis, and Louisville have each won only one game, have occasionally looked good (Houston 45 - Minnesota 43) and usually, very bad (UCLA 66 - Houston 10).

10. Independents. Central Florida will be a force to be reckoned with someday, perhaps, and with a few breaks could actually be a ranked team (take back a one point loss to Mississippi and a two point loss to South Carolina and you are left with a 38-24 decision to Nebraska which only helped their image and a 41-14 loss to Auburn). The only other independents of consequence- Notre Dame, Navy, and Army, are all much worse than expected.

11. Big West. A little bit of I-AA calling itself I-A. Except for maybe Utah State. They can stay.