So What Do You Think Of The Pac 10?

over at Track Em Tigers a Cal football blogger posted a series of questions to the Auburn faithful to get an outside perspective of what we think about The Pac 10. i thought it was a pretty cool idea, getting people who have no rivalry or rooting interest against your school (Cal) and asking them for their own objective answers. so i decided I'd post his questions over here as well in case anybody else who doesn't read trackemtigers.com wanted to throw out their own answers.

I come to Tiger Territory because I am curious. Spending much of my time at www.californiagoldenblogs.com I feel I have become overwhelmed with certain left coast viewpoints. I thought I’d move east for some outside opinions. I am not here to talk trash, and I’m hoping for responses with more depth than S-E-C … S-E-C… Rah-rah-rah! After reviewing some of the SEC websites, I chose Auburn because you seem like a good bunch and are fairly level-headed. The following are some general questions I have about Pac-10 football, if you have an opinion or response, I’d love to hear it. Again, I’m not here to plug the Pac-10, or get into an internet fight, but rather to obtain an outside opinion. I just want to gage the general sentiment of the public over yonder, and don’t need thorough arguments supported by a series of statistics. If you are curious, my loyalties are with Cal. Also, if have questions you want to ask a left coaster feel free to ask. Oddly enough, I just read your new front page material and you already covered some of my questions.



East Coast Bias – I’d guess about a quarter of the regulars at Cal’s site fully believe in East Coast bias, particularly when it comes to recruiting rankings. The basic premise claims simple demographics (78% of the country’s population living in the eastern and central time zones) and geography (west coast time delay) leads to greater coverage and publicity for schools in the eastern and central time zones. The greater publicity and coverage leads to better preseason rankings, which contributes to a season long trend of higher than earned rankings, as the teams are more likely to face other ranks teams benefitting from the same east coast bias. Basically, extra coverage leads to higher ranking which leads to higher rankings throughout the conference, at the end of the season it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy. Do you believe there is some truth to the idea of East Coast bias, or do we just complain a lot?

Scheduling – I believe one of the strengths of the Pac-10 is their aggression in scheduling. I acknowledge that a school’s strength of schedule is a bit based on luck. The OOC games are generally set up a few years in advance, and team strength varies from year to year. For example, Cal played Michigan St. in 2002 and 2008, in 2002 Michigan St. was ranked #15, in 2008 they finished in the top 25, every year in between Mich. St. was a nobody and finished in the lower half of the Big-10, the fact they were a quality opponent the years we played them was luck. Generally, with exception to Notre Dame USCum only plays BCS conference teams. Cal has played Tennessee twice, Maryland, and Michigan St. with Colorado and Ohio St. on the schedule in the coming years. Oregon, Oregon St. UCLA, all have marquee OOC games this season, even Washington which stupidly scheduled LSU ensuring at least one Pac-10 embarrassment, schedules tough opponents. What does the SEC think of Pac-10 scheduling? Do we schedule big games because we have something to prove? Do you not really care what we do, unless it involves the SEC? Is it admirable, and more teams should play tougher games?

Perception of Pac-10 Teams - Without doing research, which Pac-10 schools would you rate as the 5 best over the past 5 years? Yes, I fully realize U$C has been the best.

Jahvid Best – I was recently youtubing while my girlfriend was packing for the airport, and someone made a video where they rank the Top 15 fastest players in college football. Jahvid Best was not on the list http://vimeo.com/2744979 I declared some serious shenanigans, I fully believe Best is the fastest player in college football, and I would think anyone that has seen him in space would acknowledge his speed as well. I also think that Best has the greatest chance to unseat the big 3 of Tebow, McCoy, and Bradford for the Heisman this year, however, I am a Cal homer with a tainted perception. My question, have you heard of Jahvid Best? Do you think if by some fluke Tebow, McCoy, and Bradford all went down with injury early, that he’d be the frontrunner for the Heisman? Doesn’t Best deserve to be on the list of fastest players in college football?

The Mountain West – Much was made of the Mountain West’s 5-2 record against the Pac-10, and deservedly so. Last year the Mountain West had some very good teams (Utah, TCU, BYU), the Pac-10 also had a down year, particularly the bottom half of the conference. The Pac-10 consistently plays the Mountain West because of simple geography, we are very much isolated on the West Coast. Unlike the SEC which has some overlap with the ACC, and Big-10 & 12 schools a modest distance away, our closest BCS conference team is Colorado, which is a two hour flight from the nearest Pac-10 school. My question is, what do you think of the Mountain West? I believe that the football conference hierarchy breaks down as follows Group 1: SEC, ACC, Pac-10, Big-12, Big-10 Group 2: Mountain West, Big East Group 3: Everyone else. Are they a flash in the pan? Are they a legitimate threat to overtake the Big East’s BCS bowl bid? Do the top teams in the league hide the fact that the league lacks depth?

Anyway, that’s all, as I said many times before, I’m just searching for a little outside perspective. Please, indulge me in your viewpoint.

My answers to each question were:

East Coast Bias: i think when it comes to pre-season rankings you can really call it traditional powerhouse bias…this is why teams like Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State historically find themselves ranked for higher in the polls. but yeah the East Coast bias totally exists because that’s where all the news and media centers are.

Perception of Pac-10 Teams: i think most SEC fans think the pac 10 teams are soft other than USC, but if you look at which league turns out the most quality NFL players you’d have to say that the Pac 10 is right behind the SEC. if i was being objective then i’d say top to bottom that the Pac 10 is the 2nd best conference in college football…mostly because the Big 12 is too top heavy with Texas and Oklahoma and then after that there is a huge dropoff. with the Pac 10 you’ve got 1 top heavy team and then about 7 other schools with quality football programs. if i was to just blinding rank the Pac 10’s best teams over the past 5 years without really looking at records they would be:
1. USC
2. Oregon
3. Cal
4. Oregon State
5. Arizona State

Javid Best: i’ve only seen him play twice, he seems pretty f’ing fast…still when you are thinking about the FASTEST players in college football, the SEC is loaded with guys who run track and all you ever hear about anymore is SEC speed…so who knows where Best really ranks. i’d take him over most of the backs currently in our league.

Scheduling: the Pac-10 overall does a far better job of scheduling out of conference games than the SEC. where most SEC teams will load up on Conference USA and Sun Belt cupcakes, the Pac 10 seems much more willing to take on another team that might actually beat one of their schools, partly because geographically your cupcakes are a little bit tougher and partly because the SEC doesn’t have to travel, so they don’t. also the fact that everyone in the PAC 10 plays one another is pretty cool.

The Mountain West i think the Mountain West’s record against the Pac 10 is more proof that they should be included in the BCS than it says anything about the weakness of the Pac 10. as much as the SEC loves to talk about being the best, we actually have a losing record against the Big East over the last 4 or 5 years.