Which Is More Dominant: SEC Football or Big East Basketball?
by mlmintampa on Mar 23, 2009 4:32 AM EDT
in Basketball
14 comments
One of the stories to come out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament is the mighty Big East and their five teams in the Sweet 16. While the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-10 got more than half their league based on reputation, the Big East proved their worth. (The Big 12 has 3 of 6 teams left, a good mark had the Big East not have 5 of 7 left. Marquette was a few seconds from making it 6 of 7.)
When the Big East was raided by the ACC for football teams at Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech, many doubted if the Big East was worth anything. While their eight football schools won't challenge anyone, expansion in basketball has paid off. When the Big East became a 16 team basketball league, days like Sunday was the goal.
But does Big East Basketball compare to SEC Football? Historically, we can start with 1985, the first year of the 64 team tournament. Since that time, the Big East has won four National Championships (Villanova, UConn [2], Syracuse). The SEC has won seven Mythical National Championships (Alabama, Florida [3], Tennessee, LSU [2]). This is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. If you put the SEC Champ in a Final Four, do you think they would have won seven titles? Of course not. A few would have slipped up. If we include basketball runners up, it evens it out (Georgetown, Syracuse [2], Seton Hall).
However, we can compare the final AP polls for SEC Football versus the Sweet 16 for Big East Basketball. Again, we'll start with 1985. To make it interesting, let's add the other super conference that beats their chest when it comes to a particular sport. (I used the AP Poll Archive and ESPN's Tourney Extras historical brackets.)
SEC Football Appearances In AP Top-16: 87
Big East Basketball Appearances In Sweet 16: 58
ACC Basketball Appearances In Sweet 16: 64
Since 1998, the creation of the BCS, SEC Football has been even more dominant. The Big East Basketball pulls ahead of the ACC in terms of appearances. (* note national championships.)
| Year | SEC Top-16 Teams | Big East Sweet 16 Teams | ACC Sweet 16 Teams |
| 1998 | 4* | 3 | 3 |
| 1999 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| 2000 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2001 | 4 | 1 | 2* |
| 2002 | 3 | 2 | 2* |
| 2003 | 4 | 4* | 2 |
| 2004 | 4* | 3* | 3 |
| 2005 | 5 | 2 | 3* |
| 2006 | 4* | 4 | 2 |
| 2007 | 4* | 2 | 1 |
| 2008 | 4* | 2 | 1 |
The SEC comes out on top, 41-27-23. (Note: 2009 not included since they have not played the 2009 College Football season.)
The Big East, to match SEC Football, has to put together a few years of Sweet 16 appearences like they have done in 2009. They also have to win National Championships. Already in this decade, the Big East has won back-to-back titles (UConn '03, Syracuse '04). But so has the ACC (Duke '01, Maryland '02) and the SEC (Florida '06, '07). SEC Football has won three consecutive and four of six BCS Championships. The last time a conference won three consecutive backetball championships was 1991-93 (Duke [2], UNC). It appears as if any challenge to SEC Football is still a few years in the making. Now, won't you chant with me?
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SEC foot ball be alot more better than Big East basket ball.
Any time yous talking about any thing with Bama, it going to be more better cause of it. Bama going to dominat the SEC for years to come. We going to chop the tale of you gators on our way to a Nationel Champienship.
We gots back to back recruten Nationel Chamienships to. The Tide be ROLLIN and we’s cant be stopped.
ROLL TIDE
uhhhh
Can’t you just go back to annoying the folks on the Roll Bama Roll site? We really don’t need your clutter here.
Yall get ready for the Ballin Bama Boom Train.
It be coming. It ok if yous scared cause the rest of the SEC and the rest of the contry be scared to since we got the train rolling. FEAR THE BALLIN BAMA BOOM TRAIN.
ROLL TIDE
I meant the season starting in 2004 and with March Madness taking place in 2005.
I hate how almost everything goes by fiscal years now.
There is one very minor thing though
You’ve already mentioned the apples to oranges notion of comparing tournaments to polls, but you’re ignoring one other big factor. With 344 Division I basketball teams vs. 120 I-A/FBS football teams, finishing in the top 16 in basketball is just a bit more difficult; it’s the top 13.3% of football, and the top 4.6% of basketball; the top 13.3% of basketball would go all the way down to #46. Not to mention that respectable mid-majors in football are the top-tier MWC and WAC teams and maybe one or two others, whereas in basketball you have to go down to the low-major champs that get in the tournament with 14-16 seeds to find teams that have almost no chance of stealing a game, and pretty much every team in the top 10 has lost to someone outside the top 25.
Agreed.
I had thought about using the final AP poll for college basketball, but the general public does not use polls to determine college basketball excellence. We may never think George Mason was a top-4 team in 2006, but because we saw them in the Final Four, we give them the benefit of the doubt. This also hurts super conferences like the ACC, who would have Wake Forest and FSU in the poll, but not in this year’s Sweet 16.
It’s not a perfect comparison, but I think it also shows how good Big East Basketball has been lately. They were getting multiple Sweet 16 teams even before expansion.
mlmintampa
UF C/O 06
I dunno...
I don’t think it’s fair to compare the two sports when Big East basketball has to go through a playoff while SEC football has relied on BCS/AP voting.
In the last few years, in particular, SEC teams have gotten mulligans ever since Auburn was snubbed for the title game in 2004. In their minds, a one-loss SEC team automatically trumps a one-loss Big 12 team without rhyme or reason. And in 2007, a two-loss SEC team got the nod, albeit in a topsy-turvy year for the sport.
The harsh reality is that while the SEC is still the most talented conference in college football, its own prior success has made its road easier than it probably should be.
However, the Big East is guaranteed at least one Final Four team (Villanova-Pitt), could easily get three in without too much trouble (Louisville and UConn), and could even get a fourth if Syracuse could somehow pull out a win in the same region as UNC.
I think they’re at least equal.
One more thing...
If Florida were to repeat as national champions and break the tie the SEC has with the Big Ten in most consecutive national championships, how much credit for winning those four has to go to the conference, as compared to Florida just being, well, dominant? In fact, shouldn’t we be asking these questions since Florida has two of the three titles?
Just as an aside, four SEC schools accounted for the seven football championships/runner up spots the league earned since 1985. On the other hand, five Big East schools accounted for the league’s seven 1st or 2nd place spots in that same span.
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