FBS Conference Power Rankings: BCS Era

In this power ranking I will attempt to answer the common question on college football message boards across the country. How do the Conferences of the FBS stack up against each other? The main research for these power rankings comes from the AP Poll and the Coaches/USA Today Poll over the 12 seasons in the BCS era from 1998-2009.

Before we get to the rankings themselves, lets look at some interesting facts I discovered while researching this topic.

1. The Pac 10 is the only conference that has had all of its members ranked during the BCS era.
2. The Sun Belt is the only conference that hasn't had a member ranked in the BCS era.
3. 9 teams from AQ conferences (13.8% of AQ teams) haven't finished a season ranked since the creation of the BCS (Baylor, Connecticut, Duke, Iowa State, Kentucky, Northwestern, North Carolina, South Florida, Vanderbilt)
4. 16 teams from non AQ conferences (29.6% of Non AQ teams) have finished at least one season ranked during the BCS era. (Air Force, Boise State, Bowling Green, BYU, Central Michigan, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Louisville (pre 2005 in C-USA) Marshall, Miami (OH), Southern Miss, TCU, Toledo, Tulane, Utah)

OK, now on to the power rankings. As I stated before, the rankings are based on how many rankings each conference got in the AP and Coaches polls. Here is the point system:

• 1 point for each top 25 ranking
• 1.5 points for a top 15
• 2 for a top 10
• 4 for a top 5
• And finally, 8 points for a National Championship
• The total is then divided by the number of teams in the conference to make it equal

I also did 2 rankings. In the first the conferences accumulate points based on the teams currently in their conference. In the second ranking the conferences only got points for teams that were in their conference at the time they were ranked.

For example: Miami was ranked 6 times from '98 to '03 when they were in the Big East. In the first power ranking those count towards the ACC where Miami currently resides. In the second power ranking they count towards the Big East where they were a member at the time the rankings were accumulated.

Conference Power Rankings (Current Alignment)

Conference	Top 25	Top 15	Top 10	Top 5	NC	Points	Pts/Team
1. SEC	61	42	25	14	6	572	47.7
2. Big 10	50	32	24	11	1	396	36.0
3. Big 12	49	34	24	12	2	431	35.9
4. Pac 10	35	21	18	11	1	318	31.8
5. ACC	50	24	13	8	2	307	25.6
6. Notre Dame	5	2	1	0	0	16	16.0
7. MWC	18	10	6	2	0	98	10.9
8. Big East	18	9	6	1	0	85	10.6
9. WAC	9	6	2	2	0	57	6.3
10. C-USA	5	3	2	0	0	24	2.0
11. Navy	1	0	0	0	0	1	1.0
12. MAC	4	1	1	0	0	12	0.9
13. Sun Belt	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
14. Army	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0

Conference Power Rankings (Prior Alignments)

Conference	Top 25	Top 15	Top 10	Top 5	NC	Points	Pts/Team
1. SEC	61	42	25	14	6	572	47.7
2. Big 10	50	32	24	11	1	396	36.0
3. Big 12	49	34	24	12	2	431	35.9
4. Pac 10	35	21	18	11	1	318	31.8
5. Big East	29	16	11	5	1	202	25.3
6. Notre Dame	5	2	1	0	0	16	16.0
7. ACC	37	16	5	4	1	170	14.2
8. MWC	14	9	5	2	0	86	9.6
9. WAC	10	7	3	2	0	66	7.3
10. C-USA	6	3	2	0	0	25	2.1
11. MAC	7	2	2	0	0	23	1.8
12. Navy	1	0	0	0	0	1	1.0
13. Sun Belt	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
14. Army	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0