SEC blogger’s disdain for Big 12 not justified

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Published Thursday, October 9, 2008

We are a nation of rankers. We love to rank everything and anything, from best BBQ joints in Texas to Top 10 smokingest TV types. And certainly anything relating to sports always ends up being slapped with a predictably subjective pecking order.

We have BCS rankings, coaches’ rankings and NFL power rankings, with power haphazardly being thrown in ostensibly to add gravitas.

Now this week, with No. 1 Oklahoma playing No. 5 Texas in The Red River Rivalry, we have Tony Barnhart on his blog, "Mr.CollegeFootball," deconstructing why the Big 12 ranks below the SEC.

His argument basically goes: They are all in love with their pretty offenses and flashy quarterbacks over in that one, but you and I know defense wins championships. Too bad nobody in the Big 12 plays defense, or so his theory goes.

"There are more really good defenses in the SEC than in any league in the country. That’s not an opinion. It’s fact."

He then uses fuzzy stats to back up this point, using scoring defense to note that Kentucky, Auburn and Florida all rank in the top five nationally and reverting to total defense to say Oklahoma is the only Top 20 defense from the Big 12.

I am a firm believer points allowed is the best way to judge a defense, which still gives the SEC a big advantage in Top 20 defenses.

So are the Big 12 teams just not as good? Or maybe it is that they have to play defense against really good offenses instead of, say, Auburn, which ranks 104th in offense, and yesterday fired its offensive coordinator of exactly seven games and is now on what will be its sixth coordinator in 10 years.

Doomsday is not exactly needed to stop that hot mess.

Whereas, if you play defense in the Big 12, you have to go against statistically and realistically the best quarterbacks in the country almost every single week, starting with Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford. With his Longhorns counterpart for Saturday, Colt McCoy, being no slouch.

Joining them are Mizzou’s Chase Daniel, Oklahoma State’s Zac Robinson and Kansas State’s Josh Freeman, and that is just the Big 12 QBs who rank in the top 10 nationally in passer ratings. Does anybody think stopping Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell (No. 12) or Kansas’ Todd Reesing (No. 14) or Nebraska’s Joe Ganz (No. 18) is an easy task?

There are more really good quarterbacks in the Big 12 than in any conference in the country. That’s not an opinion. It’s fact.

You do not see your first SEC QB until No. 24, which is where defending Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow checks in just ahead of the kid from Rice and just behind a kid from Utah.

"This is the mistake a lot of fans and a lot of the poll voters outside the South make. They equate high-scoring football with quality football," Barnhart blogs.

How lucky for us here in Big 12 country that we have an SEC voice to tell us how this football works. Imagine the confusion, otherwise, with Sooners and Longhorns fans watching Bradford and McCoy on Saturday.

They might agree with voters and NFL theory, and really most football watchers, that the game is all about the quarterback. And teams with good ones 99 times out of 100 play quality football.

Of course, anybody who does not believe this needs only to tune in at 11 Saturday morning. The Red River Rivalry is always a good game, but this year it features two serious Heisman contenders, as well as two good defenses.

Did you know Texas ranks fifth nationally using the points-allowed criteria? Or, you know, the thing that makes that SEC so impressive.

"There is a good reason that the SEC has won the last two national championships and, quite frankly, made it look easy in the BCS title game. It’s defense," Barnhart writes.

This is probably another "mistake" common among non-SEC types, but I thought the lack of Ohio State competitiveness was why the SEC has won the last two national championships.

That and the football in the SEC is fantastic.

Who exactly is disputing this anyway? I am a little confounded as to why anybody feels the need to defend SEC football. Every year we are bombarded, every 10 seconds seemingly, with this or that expert telling us how the SEC is the best from 1-to-12 and how playing in Starkville and Knoxville is nearly impossible even when said teams struggle.

This is used to explain away dinged records and almost always helps land an SEC team in The National Championship.

And nobody really argues because the SEC is good.

What Barnhart, et al. need to realize is so is the Big 12 this season, probably just as good, possibly better, although, without a playoff, this remains a mythical argument unlikely to be decided by a season that ends with a fake national championship.

So we have to go by the rankings - the top five, where the Big 12 wins by a score of 3-2.