# NCAA Football Inter-Conference Statistics? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 14, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-football-inter-conference-statistics/316966 "2005-08-14T14:33:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-football-inter-conference-statistics/316966/21 "2015-11-04T20:38:47Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > I just want to point out that Bowl records are a terrible way to evaluate teams from different conferences. Some teams (Big Ten, for example) want desperately to win at all costs. It means a lot to fans and especially donors. Others (PAC-12 and Big XII), unless they are representing their conference in the Rose or Orange Bowl, for example, treat Bowl Games as a reward for a good season. All the coaches bring their families, who they haven’t seen all season, have huge happy hour parties every night, go to sponsored dinners where they drink more, and don’t worry too much about the outcome of the game. > > Colorado once switched from option to pro style offense during the off-season (Kordell Stewart was coming in) and played their Bowl Game pro-style after three weeks of practice. Hard to argue your basic points! But given the tendency at most colleges to schedule regular season OOC games that are “sure wins” for the home team, what other measure is there to determine a _legitimate_ conference vs. conference tally? ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-football-inter-conference-statistics/316966/22 "2015-11-04T21:28:12Z")
Instead of looking at which conference wins more OOC games, regular season or bowl games, look at which conferences lose the most OOC games. I agree that even conferences that schedule OOC games against other P5 schools they do it against the patsies in those conferences if they can. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-football-inter-conference-statistics/316966/23 "2015-11-04T21:50:20Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Hard to argue your basic points! But given the tendency at most colleges to schedule regular season OOC games that are “sure wins” for the home team, what other measure is there to determine a _legitimate_ conference vs. conference tally? I don’t think there is one. You could only tally wins and losses in major Bowls, but that is a tiny sample size and only measures the very best team’s performances, not the strength of a conference in general. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-football-inter-conference-statistics/316966/24 "2015-11-04T22:32:35Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > I just want to point out that Bowl records are a terrible way to evaluate teams from different conferences. Another issue is that even bowl games aren’t necessarily representative of conference strength. A team can schedule non-conference cupcakes, have a losing season in conference, and still be bowl eligible. Once you get past the biggest bowls tie-ins and trying to get teams with fanbases that travel well have a lot to do with the matchups. Some control for in conference records and looking at all cross conference games might work better than just using bowl records. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-football-inter-conference-statistics/316966/25 "2015-11-11T13:47:14Z")
There may be no “right answer” to the question, especially one that encompasses the current relative strengths of the teams involved, but one measure I looked at may help satisfy the “homers” in the various Big League conferences. From [http://mcubed.net/ncaaf/tvc/index.shtml](http://mcubed.net/ncaaf/tvc/index.shtml) Team/Conference vs. Conference records Pick a Conference ACC American Athletic Big 10 Big 12 Big East Conference USA Independents MAC Mountain West PAC 12 SEC Southwest Sun Belt WAC ========================================================================== ```auto === Big 10 records against other conferences TEAM G W L T WIN% PFPG PAPG PAC 12 507 242 253 12 48.9 20.2 20.9 SEC 143 57 84 2 40.6 21.6 24.4 === ACC records against other conferences TEAM G W L T WIN% PFPG PAPG Big 10 134 56 76 2 42.5 20.5 24.8 Big 12 92 43 49 0 46.7 22.8 24.0 Independents 683 326 344 13 48.7 20.7 20.9 PAC 12 60 21 38 1 35.8 18.5 26.0 SEC 447 144 293 10 33.3 16.8 23.4 === Big 12 records against other conferences TEAM G W L T WIN% PFPG PAPG Big 10 423 176 233 14 43.3 17.6 20.8 Big East 49 24 25 0 49.0 24.6 25.3 SEC 158 69 83 6 45.6 21.7 22.4 Southwest 350 150 184 16 45.1 16.6 18.0 === Big East records against other conferences TEAM G W L T WIN% PFPG PAPG ACC 165 73 91 1 44.5 23.1 24.9 Big 10 76 25 51 0 32.9 20.0 28.0 PAC 12 34 12 22 0 35.3 24.6 29.2 === PAC 12 records against other conferences TEAM G W L T WIN% PFPG PAPG Big 12 269 125 137 7 47.8 21.6 24.1 SEC 114 40 69 5 37.3 19.3 23.9 Southwest 127 60 63 4 48.8 18.0 18.7 === SEC records against other conferences TEAM G W L T WIN% PFPG PAPG Big East 54 25 29 0 46.3 26.4 26.6 ``` [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncaa-football-inter-conference-statistics/316966.md?page=1)