How the SEC fared against the other nine conferences

The SEC prides itself on being the best conference in the land, but the numbers from the 2014 season indicate the SEC was actually just a middle-of-the-pack league among the FBS’s power five conferences.

SEC teams combined to play 41 total FBS non-conference games this season, and those teams boasted a collective record of 34-7. Not bad, right? That’s a win percentage of .829, which is certainly nothing to shrug at.

However, the SEC was just 5-6 in games against the other power conferences, indicating the conference is not quite as dominant as its non-conference record indicates.

The conference obviously took a major hit on the final Saturday of the season, as four SEC East teams were swept by their in-state rivals from the ACC. Through the first 13 weeks of the season the conference was an impressive 5-2 in games against the other power conferences, and a strong showing in Week 14 might have allowed the SEC to assert its dominance over those other leagues.

Instead, the SEC posted a worse record against the ACC (1-4) than any other individual conference this season. The lone win came in Week 1 when Georgia took down Clemson at home.

The SEC’s best record against a power conference came against the Big 12, which was the only power conference left out of this year’s College Football Playoff. The SEC was an impressive 3-1 against the Big 12, including wins over West Virginia, Texas Tech and Kansas State, which was ranked in the top 10 in the nation until the final weekend of the regular season.

Teams from the SEC were 1-1 against the Big Ten (most of you recall Missouri’s home loss to Indiana, and LSU took out Wisconsin in a Week 1 thriller), and the SEC never faced a Pac 12 foe in 2014.

The conference was a much more impressive 29-1 against the group of five conferences, with the lone loss coming in Week 1 when Vanderbilt (inarguably the SEC’s worst team) lost at home to Temple of the AAC.

SEC teams were fond of opponents from the Sun Belt and Conference USA, posting a 17-0 record against teams from those conferences. SEC teams also took out two of the three AAC co-champions (Ole Miss beat Memphis and Missouri beat UCF), and Ole Miss also took out Mountain West champ Boise State at a neutral site in Week 1.

The SEC East can claim all seven of the conference’s losses outside the SEC, with each team in the division losing exactly once out of conference. The SEC West was a perfect 21-0 outside the conference (excluding FCS opponents).

And in case you needed reassurance, the SEC was a perfect 14-0 in games against FCS foes.

Here’s a complete breakdown of how the SEC fared against the FBS’s other nine conferences this season: