GoBlueDavid
Red Shirt
Which conference is the best? It's a simple question. Yet, year after year, it’s the most discussed, debated and dissected non-story in the sport. So of course we at 247Sports are here to break it down for you. This inquiry can be parsed in a number of ways, but we’re taking it like so: Which conference is the strongest heading into 2018? This eliminates any historical arguments and should chop away any bias created by history outside last year. Of course, history does play a small part. Florida and Florida State had horrible 2017 seasons, but it isn’t reasonable to expect their programs to swan dive for any extended period – well, unless you’re living in Austin in the post-Colt McCoy era.
So here are a few loose factors that helped dictate these rankings: 1. Top-to-bottom strength of the conference. 2. The number of national title contenders a league can claim in 2018. 3. 2017 results 4. 2017 bowl results 5. 2017 non-conference game results 6. Common sense and the eyeball test.
Which criteria are more important than others? That depends on the situation. Just think of this as a Conference Power Ranking committee of one. We give you the results, but, like Kirby Hocutt, don’t have to explain every little detail of the ranking.
With all of that said, here’s how 247Sports would rank the 10 FBS football conferences from 10 to one entering 2018....
(1 to 10 list at link below):
https://247sports.com/ContentGallery/Best-conference-in-college-football-Its-not-the-SEC-118283399
