One of the longest debates going in college baseball is which conference is the best in the country top to bottom. There are several that are deserving of recognition, but in my mind it comes down to 4 major conferences. Those conferences include the SEC, ACC, Pac 10, and the Big XII. Conferences such as Conference USA, Big West, and the West Coast Conference all have great teams in them. Some of the teams in those conferences are national powers such as Rice, Cal State Fullerton, and San Diego. I feel however that top to bottom there are only 4 that are worthy of being considered the best conference in all of baseball.
We decided to crunch some numbers and see what we came up with. We researched every team inside of those 4 conferences. What we were looking for was head-to-head match ups. We pulled every game that matched teams from these 4 conferences over the last 4 seasons and compared the results. Here is what we came up with.
Games Team
48 Georgia
43 Arizona State
39 Florida
36 Florida State
35 Clemson
33 Stanford
31 Texas
28 Miami
25 South Carolina
23 Georgia Tech
22 Baylor
22 Oregon State
There were several teams that played a multitude of games against the other power conferences. Leading the way with 48 games was Georgia. They were followed closely by Arizona State with 43. Georgia’
Arizona State’s schedule was very interesting. They seemed to not only play great competition on the weekends, but they always manage to grab great teams from the Midwest and the East to play midweek games with. They’re in a situation where they play in a state that only has 1 other Division I school and obviously they’re in the same conference. That forces them to play teams midweek when they’re making a west coast swing for a weekend series.
Games Teams
4 LSU
4 Wake Forest
4 Kansas State
3 Washington
3 Texas Tech
2 Cal
2 Boston College
2 Virginia
1 Kentucky
1 Duke
On the other side of this spectrum are teams that just don’t play any other teams from power conferences. In my mind if you want to be considered the elite conference then you have to play against those teams vying for the same billing. We only considered clubs that have played more than 1 game a year (5 total) against the other power conferences for our calculations. Understandably a few of these teams play other great teams like Rice, Tulane, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, East Carolina, and several other clubs. We are talking about the best conference and proving so. There are opportunities to play great clubs in non-conference games. These teams have chosen not to do so. There could be a multitude of reasons for this
% Team
0.818 Southern Cal
0.778 Texas A&M
0.682 Baylor
0.682 Oregon State
0.674 Arizona State
0.645 Texas A&M
0.625 Oklahoma State
0.615 North Carolina
0.579 Nebraska
0.576 Stanford
Some clubs that have really excelled against the power conferences. Based on their tradition, Southern Cal has been down the past few years. But as you can see they have still excelled in big games with a record of 9-2 against the major conferences. Texas A&M also posts an impressive record at 14-4. Following them are Baylor and Oregon State with identical records of 15-7.
% Team
0.125 Alabama
0.174 Kansas
0.308 UCLA
0.308 Tennessee
0.318 Auburn
0.353 Vanderbilt
0.371 Clemson
0.381 Oklahoma
0.421 Ole Miss
0.421 Arkansas
There are also teams that have really struggled against the best competition. Alabama has amassed a record of only 1-7 against the other power conferences. Kansas has played an impressive 23 games against the other power conferences. That only includes one year of post season where they played in a regional. They pack their non-conference schedule with great clubs. Unfortunately for them they have only won 4 of those 23 games. UCLA has been the least successful team of the Western half of the United States in these games by posting a record of 4-9.
% Conference
0.587 Pac 10
0.525 Big XII
0.461 ACC
0.451 SEC
Overall it is the Pac 10 that reigns supreme in winning % for these games. They posted a .583 winning % collectively. That percentage is better than any team in the SEC has done individually in these games! They are 33-16 against the SEC, 10-7 against the ACC, and 45-40 against the Big XII. Owning a winning record against every conference is quite a feat.
The Big XII comes in second by posting a .526 winning %. They are 40-45 against the Pac 10, 35-23 against the SEC, and 7-6 against the ACC.
Next is the ACC at .470. They are 7-10 against the Pac 10, 6-7 against the Big XII, and 58-63 against the SEC.
The SEC brings up the rear at a .447 winning %. They are 16-33 against the Pac 10, 23-35 against the Big XII, and 63-58 against the ACC.
The SEC has won the individual battle against the ACC over the last 4 seasons. That’s due in large part to the success that Florida has had over Miami in their annual 3-game series, and the midweek battles that Georgia and South Carolina have won over Clemson and Georgia Tech. Auburn has really struggled against Florida State which has kept the match up fairly even for the 2 conferences.
So there you have it. Let the debate begin. I’ve had the pleasure of living in numerous parts of this great country. One thing that I learned is that the best team in the country resides close to where you live. Everyone loves their favorites. Every geographic region has logic as to why their team is better. The debate will continue on long after this article. One thing that doesn’t fabricate is numbers. For now we’ll call the Pac 10 supreme. With winning %’s above .500 against all 3 of the other conferences it’s hard not to do so. Throw in the fact that they have 2 national championships over that time frame and it’s time to admit to it.
What the next four years will bring us I can’t tell you. These numbers may be totally flipped around. One thing that I do know is that we have some great conferences in college baseball. The game is strong and the competition is only getting better.
