Bowl records by conference: Big Ten the best, Pac-12 historically bad
The Big Ten has dominated and the Pac-12 has scuffled in bowl season as the College Football Playoff begins.
Putting stock into bowl games has become a dangerous thing to do, but it also still provides an indicator on the performance of a conference as a whole. With the College Football Playoff arriving on New Year’s Day, the rest of the bowl games slowly wrapped up.
As is the case every year, there are conferences that standout with an impressive bowl season. There are others that scuffle and it really makes you wonder where the direction of the conference is as a whole.
This year, it was the Big Ten that absolutely dominated. The conference won seven of their eight games and showed off in impressive style. The Pac-12 was the doormat of the power five conferences and one has to wonder which programs are going to be the ones to turn it around.
The SEC has been surprisingly poor and it really is going to be up to their two programs in the College Football Playoff to come through for them. The ACC and Big-12 have sat right there comfortably in the middle of the pack.
Here are the conference records for the Power 5 entering the College Football Playoff.
- Big Ten: 7-1
- Big 12: 5-2
- ACC: 4-5
- SEC: 2-5
- Pac-12: 1-8
Next: Ranking every CFP team in history
The Big Ten could have gone perfect and really made a statement had Michigan not given up 23 unanswered points to South Carolina. If South Carolina didn’t mount that comeback, it would have been another bad loss for the SEC, after Auburn lost to UCF in the Peach Bowl and LSU lost to Notre Dame on New Year’s Day.
Nonetheless, one of the two SEC schools bringing home a national championship would ultimately change the perception of things as they stand. Right now, the Big Ten has been the dominant conference despite not having a playoff team this season.