Sigh, another year of SEC vs Big 10 debates

I suppose we have the internet to blame, every knuckle dragger with a pulse and some bandwidth can chime in with his or her enlightened opinion on any topic imaginable. Emotionally charged topics always bring out the crazies. I have a theory why this is particularly bad when it comes to college football; it's regional and semi-tribal, therefore it's tied to our self identification on some deep pre-rational level. That's why facts rarely get in the way of a good argument. The general tone on most forums is "you're either one of us or you're a trogldyte who wouldn't know good football if your were pancaked by it."

With the recent success of the SEC in the National Championship game and the Big 10's struggles the debate is at a fever pitch. Of course the supposed dominance of the SEC is more perception than fact, but would you expect anything different from a sport that picks the top two teams that play for the National Championship by a popularity contest?

Here are some facts I gleaned from the College Football Data Warehouse, the best college football data base I've come across.

Big Ten vs SEC 95-89-7 (51%)-Advantage: Big 10

D-1 All time wins of Big 10 and SEC teams:

Rank-Team-win pct.

1. Michigan 74%
5. Ohio State 71%
6. Penn St. 68%
7. Alabama 70%
9. Tennessee 69%
11. Georgia 64%
12. LSU 64%
13. Auburn 63%
23. Arkansas 59%
26. Florida 62%
27. Minnesota .57%
32. Mich St. 58%
34. Miss. 56%
35. Wisc. 565%
40. Purdue 54%
41. Iowa 52%
42 Illinois 52%
44. Kentucky 50%
48 Vanderbilt 50%
60. S. Car 49%
72. Miss St. 48%
86. Northwestern 43%
95. Indiana 42%

Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State top the list, six SEC teams follow, six of the next 7 are in the Big Ten, and the bottom 2 of the last 7 are in the Big Ten.

81% of the Big Ten is above .500 in all time wins and in the top 50 all time winning programs.
83% of the SEC is above .500 and in the top 50 all time.

2 Big Ten and 2 SEC teams are below .500

Advantage: Even

NFL Draft picks since 2003

Big Ten-210 (19/team avg.) SEC-225 (18.75/team avg.) advantage: Even

Head to Head matchups

Mich vs SEC 20-5
Ind vs SEC 26-21
Minn vs SEC 5-3
Iowa vs SEC 4-3
PSU vs SEC 16-16
Mich St. vs SEC 5-6
Pur vs SEC 4-5
OSU vs SEC 7-11
Wisc vs SEC 4-8
NW vs SEC 2-5
Ill vs SEC 2-6

Big 10 vs:

Alabama 9-13-0
Arkansas 5-1-0
Auburn 3-6-2
Florida 5-9-0
Georgia 2-7-0
Kentucky 31-24-1
LSU 4-7-1
Miss 3-0-0
Miss St. 6-2-1
S. Car 5-3-0
Tenn 5-10-0
Vanderbilt 17-7-2

SEC vs:

Illinois 6-2-0
Indiana 21-26-1
Iowa 3-4-0
Michigan 5-20-1
Mich St. 6-5-1
Minnesota 3-5-0
Northwestern 5-2-1
Ohio State 11-7-2
Penn St. 16-16-0
Purdue 5-4-0
Wisconsin 8-4-1

advantage: SEC

When you look at the head to head matchups, the SEC's top teams are consistently better against the big 10 than the top Big 10 teams are against the SEC thanks mostly to Ohio State's 7-11 record overall and abysmal 0-9 record in bowl games, but the bottom feeders in the Big 10 do better against the SEC than the SEC's bottom feeders do against the Big 10. I also looked at a lot of North vs. South and west vs. south records and there is no clear superiority there either. For instance Notre Dame is 21-13 vs the SEC, Pittsburgh is 8-1-2, Missouri is 19-8-1, West Va is 21-17-2, North Carolina is 84-74-8, Oklahoma is 19-9-1, and USC is 21-17-2. I'm sure equally lopsided records supporting the SEC superiority argument could be found but my point is not that the SEC sucks, it is that the SEC's current success does not erase the evenness of the SEC vs Big 10 rivalry overall. The case can be made for SEC superiority only by ignoring important stats that do not support that argument. But as I said why let that get in the way of a good argument.