Is the Pac-12 on the verge of unseating the SEC?

As we venture into Knoxville, let's not over look what happened in week three to Tennessee:

Final

Tennessee 14

(2-1, 0-1 away)

(2) Oregon 59

(3-0, 2-0 home)

Coverage: ABC

3:30 PM ET, September 14, 2013

Autzen Stadium, EUGENE, OR

		1	2	3	4	T
	TENN	7	0	0	7	14
#2	ORE	10	28	21	0	59

Top Performers

Passing: M. Mariota (ORE) - 456 YDS, 4 TD

Rushing: D. Thomas (ORE) - 13 CAR, 86 YDS, 1 TD

Receiving: J. Mundt (ORE) - 5 REC, 121 YDS, 2 TD

And it wasn't that close.

Still, to use it as some sort of proof the Pac-12 is catching the SEC takes a pretty big leap, if you ask me. Yet, that is what Paul Myerberg did in the USA Today.

Let me say, I'm a fan of Myerberg. He is (usually) even handed and level headed. However this isn't his best work. Especially when Exhibit A for his thesis is this:

Oregon's near-flawless win against a blueblood SEC program serves as a microcosm of the Pac-12's recent growth

I guess that is one way to look at it. Or you could say that the best team in the Pac-12 did exactly what they should have done at home against the hopelessly over matched 13th best team in the SEC. Does anyone think there would be a different outcome if Alabama played Washington State in Tuscaloosa, especially considering the Cougars lost to the 9th or 10th best team in the SEC in Auburn opening weekend?

I get what Myerberg is saying, and he is right. The Pac-12 is the best conference to challenge the SEC from top to bottom. However, when you look at the two conferences side by side, I'd say they have a ways to go:

NCAA Men's Football - Southeastern (2013-2014) Conf. Ranking: 1    Conf. SOS Rank: 1 Overall Recard: 43-18    Non-Conf Record: 32-7

Only games against Division I opponents are counted. Rankings update every 5 mins. Last updated - Wed Oct 2 10:01:07 PDT 2013

Rank		Southeastern	Conf	All	Index	SOS Rk	SOS
West Division
	1	Alabama	2-0	4-0	50.20	7	60.67
	7	Texas A&M	1-1	4-1	44.09	9	60.22
	16	LSU	1-1	4-1	38.02	25	57.03
	34	Mississippi	1-1	3-1	28.10	65	54.02
	51	Auburn	1-1	3-1	23.14	12	58.66
	62	Mississippi St.	0-1	2-2	21.83	73	53.61
	72	Arkansas	0-1	3-2	21.05	45	55.34
East Division
	6	Georgia	2-0	3-1	45.20	1	64.44
	11	South Carolina	1-1	3-1	41.88	17	57.68
	14	Florida	2-0	3-1	39.81	23	57.26
	24	Missouri	0-0	4-0	33.06	47	55.24
	50	Vanderbilt	0-2	3-2	23.62	192	45.98
	64	Tennessee	0-1	3-2	21.66	48	55.16
	113	Kentucky	0-1	1-3	16.65	21	57.30

NCAA Men's Football - Pacific-12 (2013-2014) Conf. Ranking: 2    Conf. SOS Rank: 2 Overall Recard: 37-12    Non-Conf Record: 29-4

Only games against Division I opponents are counted. Rankings update every 5 mins. Last updated - Wed Oct 2 10:01:07 PDT 2013

Rank		Pacific-12	Conf	All	Index	SOS Rk	SOS
South Division
	12	UCLA	0-0	3-0	41.09	142	49.36
	31	Arizona St.	1-1	3-1	28.82	54	54.66
	32	Arizona	0-1	3-1	28.65	8	60.61
	33	Utah	0-1	3-1	28.33	108	51.29
	59	USC	0-2	3-2	22.43	66	53.97
	82	Colorado	0-1	2-1	20.06	61	54.11
North Division
	2	Oregon	1-0	4-0	47.19	120	50.70
	4	Stanford	2-0	4-0	46.16	53	54.69
	18	Washington	1-0	4-0	37.04	52	54.72
	35	Oregon St.	2-0	4-1	28.05	125	50.27
	66	Washington St.	1-1	3-2	21.54	15	57.97
	94	California	0-1	1-3	18.91	2	64.28

Looking over the SOS numbers, only two SEC teams, Vandy and Mississippi State, has played a schedule below the top 50, with Georgia (1), Alabama (7), and Texas A&M (9) all playing top ten schedules. In the Pac-12, only three teams have played a top 50 schedule, led by California (2) and Arizona (8) in the top ten. 

Oregon has played the 120th toughest schedule this season. 

I get Myerberg's point: The Pac-12 has the financial resources, a commissioner who gets what it takes to brand the conference, programs willing to devote the resources to the kind of excellence it takes to be national players, and two legitimate national championship contenders. The Pac-12 may well end up with a national championship team this season. However none of that means the Pac-12 has passed the SEC in terms of top to bottom quality, national consciousness, or ability to field compelling match-ups through the season. 

TD

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