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College Bowl Games: SEC tops bowl standings entering National Championship Game

By Patrick Schmidt

Dec 31, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide defensive back Cyrus Jones (5) hoists the Cotton Bowl championship trophy after defeating the Michigan State Spartans in the 2015 CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 31, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide defensive back Cyrus Jones (5) hoists the Cotton Bowl championship trophy after defeating the Michigan State Spartans in the 2015 CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports /
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The college bowl games are over except for the National Championship Game but the SEC already clinched the top spot in the bowl standings.

We’re down to one game left in the college football season with Alabama and Clemson playing in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Jan. 11. Their wins over Michigan State and Oklahoma came in convincing fashion and made the Big Ten and Big 12 champions and by extension, the rest of their conferences look bad on New Year’s Eve.

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The SEC has carried the torch as the best conference in college football for a decade and their bowl record gives them bragging rights for at least one more year, and that argument will be even stronger if Alabama can win their fourth title in the last seven years.

SEC teams went 8-2 in their bowl games with losses from Florida and Texas A&M. The eight bowl wins (Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Tennessee) is the most any conference has ever had.

Alabama has a chance to extend that to nine with a win vs. Clemson and give the SEC its eighth national title in football in the last 10 years.

Start the SEC chant or put your ear plugs in if you can’t stomach the thought of conference pride.

Power Five Standings

  1. SEC: 8-2* (Alabama)
  2. Pac-12 6-4
  3. Conference USA 3-2
  4. Big Ten 5-5
  5. Mountain West 4-4
  6. Sun Belt 2-2
  7. Big 12 3-4
  8. ACC 5-6* (Clemson)
  9. Mid-American 3-4
  10. American 2-6
  11. Independents (BYU, Notre Dame) 0-2

There was preseason talk the Pac-12 could dethrone the SEC for conference supremacy but they’re still in second place. The way the Stanford Cardinal looked in the 45-16 Rose Bowl win over the Iowa Hawkeyes, they may be the third or fourth best team in the nation.Losses from UCLA to a 5-6 Nebraska and Oregon blowing a 31-0 halftime lead vs TCU are black eyes.

The Big Ten got wins from two 5-7 teams in Nebraska and Minnesota so they should come with an asterisk since they only played a game under special circumstances after not getting six wins. Excluding those two, the Big Ten was 3-5 with wins from Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Ohio State won 44-28 against Notre Dame in the Fiesta and Michigan routed SEC East champion Florida 41-7 in the Citrus, but Big Ten Championship Game participants Michigan State and Iowa losing by a combined 83-16 is what people will remember. It got really ugly and that doesn’t include Tennessee boat-racing a 10-win Northwestern 45-6.

The ACC has Clemson to give them a chance to be the third-best conference in bowl season. But the Peach Bowl loss by the Florida State to Houston and North Carolina allowing Baylor to set a bowl game record with 645 rushing yards without their two top quarterbacks, Biletnikoff winner Corey Coleman or All-Big 12 running back Shock Linwood are two black eyes.

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The Big 12 only has three wins in bowl season, but they may be the three most impressive wins in bowl season with Baylor’s rushing record in the Russell Athletic Bowl, TCU’s record comeback vs Oregon in triple overtime and West Virginia getting 532 yards and five touchdowns from Skyler Howard to beat Arizona State 43-42. Plus, Oklahoma couldn’t give Clemson their first loss of the year in the Orange Bowl, but at least, the Sooners led 17-16 at halftime and didn’t embarrass themselves.

The American Athletic Conference was the best conference from the Group of Five all year but outside of Houston, Navy, Temple, UConn, South Florida and Memphis disappointed. Although, Houston’s win over Florida State is one of the five best bowl wins this year.

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Kudos to the Mountain West who came away with the most wins and to Conference USA for having the best winning percentage among the Group of Five teams. The Sun Belt got the first-ever bowl wins from Georgia Southern and Appalachian State with wins over Bowling Green and Ohio from the MAC.

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