SEC Rules!

[Guest]

Check out the NCAA Predictions that are TFNs home page here for men.

Only 5 point separating the first four teams, just 10 for the first 6. And all are from the best conference in the nation, the SEC!

[Guest]

And which conference picked to go 1-2 for the women? That would also be the SEC.

[BillVol]

who cares about the women?

[Guest]

It's ridiculous how dominant the SEC is for men. Why can't more Big 12/Big 10/Pac 10, etc. schools complete with them? At least with the women, there's some infiltration of other conferences in the top 10.

[Guest]

Probably because the other conferences have some sort of academic requirements for their athletes.

[Guest]

oh man, that's so brutal ... how can you do them that way?

[Guest]

If you were a top sprinter, where would you go if not in the SEC? Perhaps a Texas Big 12 school, but I wouldn't want to be somewhere cold.

I can't believe California doesn't have better sprinters at the college level. Good weather and a huge talent pool.

[Guest]

I've heard Pac-10 coaches complain that in general their conference's schools are tougher in the meeting-grades department. No idea if their bitching has any validity though.

[BillVol]

That's right. There are a lot of Rhodes Scholars on that Baylor 4x4 team, for example.

[Guest]

I think the biggest detterrent to the California PAC-10 schools is budgetary. CAL and UCLA both are part of the huge budget crunch going on in the system there. Non-revenue sports are definitely hit. TV money is huge for basketball and football, but the crowds and, in the case of UCLA, the absense of an on-campus football stadium must hurt (this is true for USC as well). UA and ASU have had flashes of sprinting genius, as has USC, who is a contender nationally on both the men's and women's side this year, albeit without as deep a team as many SEC programs.

Stanford is obviously doing just fine going the distance route, and UO, Washington, and WSU must go the distance/field route for the most part due to weather and in-state talent pools.


If we really want to talk about an under-achieving conference (perceptually, anyway), let's discuss ACC men or Big 10.