College football 2013 preview: Conference by conference

All week, Fansided partner Bro Jackson breaks down the five leading conferences in college football at the twilight of the BCS era.

ACC

The ACC is quietly building a noisy league I’d have to pay attention to if I was still living in the Mid-Atlantic and channel surfing. Louisville will be a member this time next year and it’s a BCS dark-horse candidate to go undefeated and get walloped by Nick Saban in the title game. Maryland is trading up, moving to the Big Ten in 2014. Its slate features only two ranked opponents. Randy Edsall’s Terps should win seven games on the good-bye tour. Their departing Under Armour empire is replaced nicely with Big East scrap metal Pittsburgh and Syracuse—two tradition-rich schools ready to log jam the 15-deep, 2013 version of this conference. Notre Dame also joins in 2013, and though not for football, their schedule fits in five ACC schools so they’ll be in the mix like a bachelor dating a single mom.

We’re starting in the middle with the Terps, so let’s back track and examine the bottom. >>> READ MORE

Big 12

Let’s start with an over-arching statement that will rankle some folks: The Big 12 is the second best conference in college football. Wait, that’s not good enough. Let’s try this: The gap between the Big 12 and the SEC isn’t as big as you think. We’re all about depth here at Bro Jackson, and the Big 12′s got that in spades. The SEC? As top-heavy as Christina Hendricks. How’s that? Angry now? Good. Let’s proceed.  >>> READ MORE

 Big Ten

Big Ten marketing emphasizes tradition, but it wouldn’t be hard to argue that the conference has lost a step or two. Illinois and Indiana are treading water at this point, Penn State lost a lot of luster over the past few years, and what happened to the time when Purdue pumped out NFL quarterbacks? And after all of the hype around Kirk Ferentz as an incredible coach who should take an NFL job, the only thing Iowa will be competing for is the Big Ten cellar. >>> READ MORE

Pac-12

Take one look at the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and you’ll see why I believe the Pac-12 is poised for a big 2013 season. Five teams are in the Top 25–the same as the Big Ten and one fewer than the SEC–and two are in the top five as legitimate national title contenders.

Of course, most folks still think of the Pac-12 as the step-child of college football due to us being three time zones away from most other fans. But 2013 could be the year college football recognizes the Pac-12 is bigger than just one or two schools. >>> READ MORE

SEC

Since 2006, every poor bastard in this world has had to suffer the indignation of keeping their mouths shut whenever SEC fans launch into their “greatest conference” spiel because, well, the SEC has rings on every appendage. Every national champion for the past seven years has been birthed by the loins of the Southeastern Conference. At what point do we call the Justice department in for an anti-trust investigation?

With six of the top 12 ranked teams in the country, that time might be now.  >>> READ MORE