Per our friend Jon Wilner today...
Here are conference winning percentages (rounded off) against Group of Five opponents so far this season...
Group of Five = American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mtn West, and Sun Belt...
Big 12 = 91%
SEC = 88%
Big 10 = 83%
ACC = 77%
PAC = 43%
He points out that the PAC plays a lot of MWC teams and BYU, while conferences listed ahead of the PAC, esp the SEC, load up on Sun Belt, etc, opponents...
That's because only 22% of the 65 Group Five programs are located west of the Mississippi River...
He argues that, qualitatively, the MWC + BYU are much better competition than those other Group Five programs...
In fact, the MWC has produced 50% more NFL draft picks than each of the other Group Five programs...
So, that is one significant factor to take into account regarding where the PAC stands related to the other conferences when talking about Group Five competition...
A second significant factor can be traced to last years Covid season when, as we all know, most other conferences got in 10 or more games while the PAC averaged half that amount...
That means that the PAC got at least 50% less training and game time experience compared to BYU, for instance, that played 12 games last season...
The third significant reason for the PAC chaos this season, in his opinion, has been the sub-standard play of new QBs in the PAC...
You don't have to look any further than what has happened at AU, Colorado, Stanford, Washington, Oregon St and Washington at the start of the season...
Throw in some new offensive coordinators into the mix and one can see why there are some significant issues on the offensive side of things with many teams...
Additionally, many elite west coast QBs are going elsewhere which just adds to the perfect storm brewing over the PAC these days...
What do you think about Wilner's analysis..??
Are these valid points or just making excuses..??
It seems to make sense to me...Go Devils!!!
Here are conference winning percentages (rounded off) against Group of Five opponents so far this season...
Group of Five = American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mtn West, and Sun Belt...
Big 12 = 91%
SEC = 88%
Big 10 = 83%
ACC = 77%
PAC = 43%
He points out that the PAC plays a lot of MWC teams and BYU, while conferences listed ahead of the PAC, esp the SEC, load up on Sun Belt, etc, opponents...
That's because only 22% of the 65 Group Five programs are located west of the Mississippi River...
He argues that, qualitatively, the MWC + BYU are much better competition than those other Group Five programs...
In fact, the MWC has produced 50% more NFL draft picks than each of the other Group Five programs...
So, that is one significant factor to take into account regarding where the PAC stands related to the other conferences when talking about Group Five competition...
A second significant factor can be traced to last years Covid season when, as we all know, most other conferences got in 10 or more games while the PAC averaged half that amount...
That means that the PAC got at least 50% less training and game time experience compared to BYU, for instance, that played 12 games last season...
The third significant reason for the PAC chaos this season, in his opinion, has been the sub-standard play of new QBs in the PAC...
You don't have to look any further than what has happened at AU, Colorado, Stanford, Washington, Oregon St and Washington at the start of the season...
Throw in some new offensive coordinators into the mix and one can see why there are some significant issues on the offensive side of things with many teams...
Additionally, many elite west coast QBs are going elsewhere which just adds to the perfect storm brewing over the PAC these days...
What do you think about Wilner's analysis..??
Are these valid points or just making excuses..??
It seems to make sense to me...Go Devils!!!
