College Football 2017: Ranking each conference by its running backs

Everyone looks to the Big Ten and SEC for the best running backs in the nation. But the folks “out west” are starting to gain traction.

Stanford’s Bryce Love is the nation’s leading rusher and is joined by several counterparts that hail from the West Coast inside the Top-10.

Does that mean the Pac-12 has overtaken the others as the premier rushing conference in the nation?

Love, Oregon’s Royce Freeman, Southern Cal’s Ronald Jones and Washington’s Myles Gaskin make for a formidable quartet at the forefront, but the Big Ten can counter with Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor, Ohio State’s J.K. Dobbins and Penn State’s sensational Saquon Barkley.

How about the SEC with Georgia’s Nick Chubb and Auburn’s Kerryon Johnson as just two of the elite? Are they No. 1?

The “little guys” outside of the Power 5 can also stand and take notice in this discussion as they have found ways to produce workhorse backs in a day and age where offenses are basing more and more around the quarterback position.

Here’s a look at the conferences ranked based on running backs only, meaning stats produced by quarterbacks have been left out for this discussion: