20 key offseason topics for 2020: No. 4. How do the college football Power Five conferences – ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC – rank in the offseason?
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20 for 2020 Offseason Topics
20. Best Teams To Not Make CFP
19: Teams That Will Rebound Big
18. Teams That Will Fall Back
17: Every Power 5 Team’s Letdown Game
16. Top 5 Instant Impact New Head Coaches
15. 2nd Year Coaches Who’ll Be Better
14. Power 5 Hot Seat Coach Rankings
13. Key Transfers You Forgot About
12. Five Big Power 5 Upset Alerts
11. Great Players About To Go Nuclear
10. Group of 5 Teams In New Year’s Six Chase
9. Power 5 Sleeper Teams
8. Most Interesting Quarterback Battles
7. 5 Teams That Might Disappoint
6. 5 Teams That Might Surprise
5. Group of Five Conference Ranking
“My conference is better than your conference.”
It’s an occasionally annoying and seemingly pointless fan fight when it comes to league bragging rights, but it sort of matters. It makes a difference when it comes to getting respect and credit in the College Football Playoff rankings, and it certainly matters when it comes to just getting into the big post-season games.
Clemson could certainly have hung in any league over the last few years, but it makes a massive difference to have been in the ACC instead of the SEC West or Big Ten East.
Despite the absence of spring football to rely on, here’s how the Power Five conferences – ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC – rank in the offseason.
We’ll do the deep dives into all the teams over the next several weeks, but or now …
5. Big 12
Again, why is the Best Conference argument important? What would’ve happened last season if Baylor had beaten Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship?
The Bears would’ve earned the right for the fourth spot in the College Football Playoff, but would the committee have liked a two-loss Oregon after winning a seemingly stronger Pac-12 title?
To take this even further, what would’ve happened if Alabama had pulled off the win over Auburn to finish 11-1? Would being Alabama with its one loss coming to a fantastic LSU team have been enough to get in over a 12-1 Big 12 Champion?
Going into this season – in whatever form it takes – the Big 12 should be okay, but it’s missing a nasty midsection.
With just ten teams in the league, if just three of them are down, that’s a big chunk that drags everything else down. Kansas should be better in Year Two under Les Miles, but it’s still going to be a fight to be anything but near the bottom of the standings.
Four Big 12 teams failed to win half of their games last season. Four didn’t do it in 2018, and three failed to do so in 2017 – but Texas Tech went bowling, and the league fattened up on Baylor and Kansas teams that finished 1-11. To keep this going, five teams finished with losing records in 2016, and four ended up as losers in 2015.
The point?
The odds are overwhelming that 40% of the Big 12 is going to be mediocre-to-awful.
Oklahoma and Texas will be outstanding, someone will rise up and by the Baylor of last year – TCU and West Virginia are the main candidates – and at least two other teams will get bowl eligible and be dangerous.
The conference race should be fun, and there will be a whole lot of tight battles, but there’s just not enough overall beef.
NEXT: No. 4 Offseason Power Five Conference
4. Pac-12
The 2019 College Football Playoff had a party, and the Pac-12 was the only one not invited.
But it’s more than just not getting its conference champion in – even though Oregon would’ve been a more interesting choice than Oklahoma. It’s that the league just can’t quite get over the perception hump, and that’s because the stars just aren’t shining brightly enough.
The Ducks losing to Auburn to start last year had a lot to do with that.
USC being a big bag of ugh isn’t helping the cause, and Kevin Sumlin’s inability to turn Arizona into a thing and Chip Kelly’s inability to summon up the magic in Westwood has been a killer.
Washington being a bit down in a rebuilding year didn’t help, and even though the rest of America didn’t seemed to notice, Stanford having a bad year was a big deal.
Oregon is going to be a top ten team to start the season, and it might just have the right mix to get to not only win the Pac-12 again, but to also go to the CFP.
Washington and Stanford should be stronger, USC is loaded with veterans, Arizona State is looking like something interesting, and Cal could potential be a thing if the offense can match the defensive production.
However, eight of the teams will be going into the year with a new starting quarterback, and there isn’t a sure-thing rock star of a No. 2 team to get that fired up about.
On the plus side, there doesn’t appear to be a Rutgers or Vanderbilt – there isn’t a total free space game. All 12 teams have something to like.
The Pac-12 needs USC to be great again. It needs Washington and Stanford to be back to form, and it wouldn’t be a bad thing if Utah could replace and rebuild in a hiccup.
And that’s sort of the issue. Once again, there should be enough good teams to make it an entertaining year, and there should be enough good teams to keep anyone – including Oregon – from going 12-1 to get into the CFP.
NEXT: No. 3 Offseason Power Five Conference
3. ACC
Alright, ACC, enough.
Clemson is going to be one of the three best teams in college football, if not No. 1. It’s time for someone else to help make the conference interesting.
At some point, Florida State and Miami are going to wake up and be Florida State and Miami to give the ACC some sizzle, but at the very least the two should be stronger this season.
They’re not going to combine to go 12-14 again.
The rest of the league should be a whole lot stronger, too.
2019 looks like just the beginning for Louisville under Scott Satterfield and North Carolina under Mack Brown, Virginia is going to be consistently good under Bronco Mendenhall, and there’s a whole lot to get interested in at Virginia Tech with a quietly decent-looking team being put together.
Syracuse should be a bit stronger after the 2019 disappointment, Georgia Tech will be better after a year of total renovation, and no way, no how will NC State be that bad again – 4-8 was just a blip.
The lack of coaching turnover – Jeff Hafley at Boston College and Mike Norvell at FSU are the only new head men – is a plus, Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson and Duke’s David Cutcliffe are still doing the most with the least, and …
Clemson is going to win the ACC Championship again.
NEXT: No. 2 Offseason Power Five Conference
2. Big Ten
We all know that Ohio State is going to be Ohio State, and Penn State should be solid, and Michigan will be just fine – even if just fine isn’t good enough – and then … what?
Michigan State is likely going to be more of a rebuild job for Mel Tucker than it might appear. Indiana is going to be okay, but it’s still Indiana. Rutgers is going to need a while under Greg Schiano, and good luck trying to figure out what Maryland is.
We know what Wisconsin is and will be.
Great defense – GREAT defense this year – efficient offense, and then problems whenever it has to face someone truly nasty. Notre Dame might qualify as one of those teams out of conference, and the date at Michigan might mean everything in the Big Ten chase.
The rest of the West is fine, but nothing amazing.
All six teams besides Bucky should be good enough to hope for a bowl slot, and that includes Illinois, Purdue, Northwestern, and yeah, Nebraska.
It should be one of the more competitive seasons in a while for the division, all to see who gets steamrolled by the Buckeyes in the Big Ten championship.
NEXT: No. 1 Offseason Power Five Conference
1. SEC
The SEC was the best conference in college football last year, and that’s with half the league in a funk.
That’s how good this thing was up top.
LSU, Georgia, Florida, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Tennessee all won their bowl games, and Auburn came up with one of the biggest keys to the season with the opening win over Oregon. But there was a whole lot of dead wood to carry around.
Arkansas was miserable. South Carolina was a dud. Vanderbilt was a disaster, and Ole Miss didn’t do a whole lot to get excited about.
Missouri would’ve gone bowling if the NCAA wasn’t so weird, and Mississippi State at least got an extra game, but overall, things weren’t all that great outside of the superstars.
Five of the top 14 teams in both of the final polls were from the SEC, but five of the top 15 were from the Big Ten. The difference? Four of the top eight teams – LSU, Georgia, Florida and Alabama – were SEC, and one of those was a dominant national champion.
This year, LSU should take a step back with a gajillion parts gone from its epic former self. Alabama will be back to being Alabama, and Florida, Georgia and Auburn will all be as good as anyone in America on the right days.
The difference this year should be the rise of the rest of the league out of the blahs.
The coaching changes at Ole Miss (Lane Kiffin) and Mississippi State (Mike Leach) will do wonders, and Arkansas can’t be any worse under new head man Sam Pittman.
If Leach and Kiffin can go Leach and Kiffin right away, the West is going to be amazing.
Unlike the 2019 version, South Carolina has a more manageable schedule and should go from 4-8 to bowling, and the bowl ban is lifted off of Mizzou.
The rest of the country will hate it, it’ll scream and yell that the SEC is overrated and overblown, and it won’t matter.
The talent is there, the coaches are there, and the SEC is there as the best conference in college football … again.
