Fair SEC match ups?

I really would be interested in two things.

One, how many times are SEC teams matched up against teams that are a higher seed? In other words, if SEC teams always play a lower ranked team wouldn't that skew the records?

I honestly don't know if the SEC usually plays lower ranked teams or not, but it is never mentioned in the debates.

Also, how many times does the SEC play away from it's home? Michigan playing Florida in Florida, seems a distinct advantage to Florida, just like USC playing any Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl is an advantage, though to be honest it would not have mattered where Illinois played yesterday.

Thank you,

Kirt

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Jan 03, 2008
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by: Mo

Kirt -- here you go, for this year, SEC Bowl match-ups were:

#1 SEC -- LSU vs #1 Big Ten -- Ohio State
#2 SEC -- Georgia vs #1 WAC
#3 SEC -- Florida vs #3 Big Ten Michigan
#4 SEC -- Tennessee vs #4 Big Ten Michigan
#5 SEC -- Auburn vs #4 ACC Clemson
#6 SEC -- Arkansas vs #3 Big-12 Missouri
#7 SEC -- Kentucky vs #7 ACC Florida State
#8 SEC -- Miss State vs #1 CUSA
#9 SEC -- Alabama vs. #5 Big-12 Colorado

So, you can see the SEC never plays lower ranked seeds from other conferences and usually plays a higher seed.

As for playing away from home. SEC schools play away from home as much as anyone else. The difference is that SEC schools happen to be located in or near state's that host bowl games. So, naturally, SEC teams tend to play bowl games closer to home.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for visiting the site.

Mo

Aug 24, 2008
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Match Up based on Conference Finish
by: Anonymous

I only went back 6 years because looking up older stats and calculating tie breakers is a hassle.
I would have only gone back 5 (adequate sampling, relevance) but didn't want to be considered bias andd wanted to show at least 1 game where a lower ranked SEC team beat a higher finishing Big 10 team.

I blogged it here but it may be gone by the time anyone references it:
http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/230036

I used standard tie breakers for the conference (#1-heads up play #2-common opponents #3- hardest conference schedule #4-overall record)

I equated Big 10 #1 and #2 to title game winner/loser, Big 10 #3 and #4 to Division 2nd, etc.

When evenly ranked SEC-5 Big10-3
When the SEC team Finished higher SEC-5 Big10-5
When the SEC team finished lower SEC-1 Big10-3
Cumulative record favors SEC in 2007, Big10 2006-2004, tied 2003-2002

My Summary:
Against OSU the SEC has looked awesome.

Against the rest of the Big10:
-the SEC is .500 when evenly matched
-struggles to maintain .500 when they are the higher team
-you have to go back to 2002 when a lower placed team beat an upper placed team from the Big10.

Sorry - I know this probably isn't quite what you wanted to hear.

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