2018-2019 bowl records by conference: Which conference has bragging rights?

Here are the bowl records for all the conferences in college football during the 2018-2019 bowl season. Which conferences have performed the best?

With nearly all the holiday season bowls in the book, we all have to wonder how the scoreboard looks in terms of conference dominance in major college football.

While the SEC has dominated in recent years, and the Pac-12 has struggled, no Power 5 conference is really asserting itself over the field this bowl season. Entering New Year’s Day, all Power 5 conferences were hovering around .500. That does seem a little odd.

However, there is a bigger discrepancy in the Group of 5. Three Group of 5 conferences finished above .500 this bowl season. That would be Conference USA (4-2), the Mountain West (3-2) and the Sun Belt (3-2).

Unfortunately, The American finishes below .500, after the UCF Knights lost in the Playstation Fiesta Bowl to the LSU Tigers. The poor MAC went a dismal 1-5 with its only bowl victory coming via a 27-0 shutout of the San Diego State Aztecs by the Ohio Bobcats in the DXL Frisco Bowl on Dec. 19. Thank goodness for Ohio.

Here is each conference’s bowl record during the 2018 bowl season, including the Independents.

2018-2019 Conference Bowl Records (Last updated after the Outback Bowl)

• American: 2-5
• ACC: 6-5*
• Big Ten: 5-4
• Big 12: 4-3
• Conference USA: 4-2
• Independents: 2-1
• MAC: 1-5
• Mountain West: 3-2*
• Pac-12: 3-4
• SEC 6-6
• Sun Belt: 3-2

*First Responder Bowl on Dec. 26 between Boston College Eagles and Boise State Broncos was canceled.

Looking at the ACC, the Atlantic Division schools showed up to play, headlined by the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic Champion Clemson Tigers, who destroy the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to reach the national championship. However, the Coastal Division schools really struggled, with four of their five losses coming from that division. Only the Duke Blue Devils and the Virginia Cavaliers got it done from bowl-eligible teams from that division.

The Big Ten was interestingly carried this holiday season by the weaker of the two divisions. The Big Ten West went 4-1, headlined by the Iowa Hawkeyes beating the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the Outback Bowl. Enjoy your coconut shrimp, America. Big Ten East teams like Michigan and Michigan State just looked awful in their losses.

With the Big 12, the middle tier held strong with the Baylor Bears, the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the TCU Horned Frogs all winning. However, ranked teams like the Iowa State Cyclones, the Oklahoma Sooners and the West Virginia Mountaineers all lost. Oklahoma lost the Capital One Orange Bowl to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff. It seems that West Virginia has lost its head coach Dana Holgorsen to the Houston Cougars job of all places. Happy New Year, Mountaineers!

The Pac-12 had five of its six North Division teams reach bowls and they were the only schools to get bowl victories for their conference. Only the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Utah Utes got to play holiday season bowls out of the Pac-12 South, but neither came away victorious. Pac-12 teams like the Oregon Ducks, the Stanford Cardinal and the Washington State Cougars won their games.

As for the SEC, when a member institution won, it pretty much won big. The Alabama Crimson Tide, the Auburn Tigers, the Florida Gators and the Texas A&M Aggies all dominated. This includes Alabama putting away Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl in Miami. The SEC’s only awful loss was the South Carolina Gamecocks falling to Virginia in the Belk Bowl, getting shut out to the tune of 28-0.

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Overall in terms of conference pride, there are wins to be enjoyed by most FBS conferences. Except for the MAC, which has that lone Ohio victory. However, if we are looking at whose best is best, the SEC should feel good about itself. The Big 12 can claim that it has a deep conference, but nothing more and absolutely not having Holgorsen as West Virginia’s coach, as he’s now in Houston.