What is the best conference in NCAA Division I?

            After Alabama beat Oklahoma to win the Women’s College World Series in softball, I saw a tweet that said the SEC had won nine national championships so far. Knowing that stat and being an Arkansas fan, I immediately thought that the SEC was the most dominate conference in the NCAA. I wanted to prove this statistically, so I decided to do a little research.

            The first thing I did, was look up how many Division I sports the NCAA sponsors. I found that there are 36: baseball, men’s/women’s basketball, women’s bowling, men’s/women’s cross country, fencing, women’s field hockey, football, men’s/women’s golf, men’s/women’s gymnastics, men’s/women’s ice hockey, men’s/women’s indoor track & field, men’s/women’s lacrosse, men’s/women’s outdoor track & field, rifle, women’s rowing, skiing, men’s/women’s soccer, softball, men’s/women’s swimming & diving, men’s/women’s tennis, men’s/women’s volleyball, men’s/women’s water polo, and wrestling.

            Then, I looked up the champion and runner up for the sport during the 2011-12 school year, and what conference they were in. Finally, I looked up the All-Americans in each sport for this year, and what conference they were in.

            It sounds easy, but it has taken me about three days to compile all of the information and crunch the numbers. Before I get into the results, just a few notes:

• In some sports, the “BCS conferences” didn’t exist as we know them in the major sports. For example, in ice hockey, there were special conferences. Boston College is in the ECAC and Wisconsin and Minnesota are in the WCHA. However, for purposes of this project, I still grouped the schools with the conference that a majority of their sports play in (EX: Boston College in the ACC, Wisconsin and Minnesota in the Big Ten).

• Notre Dame is an independent in football (which really doesn’t matter, since they weren’t the champion, runner-up, and had no All-Americans), but for all other sports, I put them with the Big East conference.

• Conference alliances have been changing drastically the past couple years, but I put teams in the conference they competed in during the 2011-12 year. Missouri and Texas A&M are still in the Big XII, while Utah and Colorado are in the Pac-12 and Nebraska is in the Big Ten.

• Some sports have multiple outlets name All-American teams. Most notably, college football has All-American teams named by the Associated Press (AP), Walter Camp Football Foundation, and several others. When this happened, I went with the most recognized organization. In football, I went with the AP All-American team.
• With the All-American teams, I only counted the All-Americans that played on teams that are in one of the “BCS conferences” (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac-12, and SEC). Figuring out what conferences some of the tiny schools were in would have taken way too much time and in the long run, the BCS conferences will have way more All-Americans. (Well, maybe except for the Big East. I’m still not sure how they are a “BCS conference.”)
• The All-American team for women's water polo hasn't been released yet and I can not find the All-American team for skiing. If someone knows where I can find the All-American skiing team, please let me know!
• The baseball College World Series is still ongoing and a champion won’t be determined until June 25^th or 26^th. Also, the only All-American team that has been released is the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper All-American team. However, the Baseball America team is the premier one, so I am waiting until it comes out to include the baseball All-Americans.

Now, that aside, it’s time for some facts.

• The SEC has won nine national championships, while the Pac-12 has won eight. The other conferences fall in the order of Big Ten (6), ACC (4), Big XII (2), and Big East (1).
• The Pac-12 has the most national championship runner-ups with eight, one ahead of the SEC who has seven. Following them is the Big XII (6), ACC (5), Big Ten (4), and Big East (1).
• As for All-Americans, the Pac-12 leads the way with 377, followed by the SEC with 345. The Big Ten holds a slight advantage over the Big XII, 264 to 261. The ACC had 141 All-Americans and the Big East has 67.

So what all does that mean? Well, I went with a classic 3-2-1 points system. National championships were worth three points, runner-ups were worth two points, and All-American selections were worth one point.

I’ll spare you from having to hunt down a calculator (or pull up the app on your smartphone) and give you the results:

1^st: Pac-12 (417 points)

2^nd: SEC (386 points)

3^rd: Big Ten (290 points)

4^th: Big XII (279 points)

5^th: ACC (163 points)

6^th: Big East (72 points)

Surprised? I was. I figured the SEC would be hands down the best conference in the NCAA, but as you can see above, the Pac-12 has a 31 point lead on the SEC. A little more thinking as I came up with an explanation as to why the Pac-12 has such a big lead on the SEC.

The Pac-12 has traditionally been a powerhouse in sports like water polo and men’s volleyball, as well as a few other sports. The SEC, on the other hand, doesn’t even field teams in these sports. In fact, of the 36 NCAA Division I sports, the SEC and Pac-12 only compete against each other in 20 of them.

If you only take those 20 sports (actually only 19 right now because baseball is still in progress) and do the same 3-2-1 points system, the SEC and Pac-12 flip-flop. The SEC has a slight lead over the Pac-12; only six points separate them (374-368). Now both conferences still have teams in the College World Series and these numbers could change, but don’t get too excited Pac-12 lovers, I don’t think the standings will go back in your favor. Here’s why:

• The SEC has three teams left and the Pac-12 has two, but for both conferences, the teams are on the same side of the bracket. Therefore, there can’t be an SEC vs. SEC final or a Pac-12 vs. Pac-12 final. This means that the most points either conference could get from a national champion/runner-up is three.
• The only way the Pac-12 would earn three points and the SEC not earn any from the College World Series is if Kent St. reaches the final and loses to Arizona or UCLA.
• Also, Baseball America hasn’t named their All-American team yet, but don’t expect the Pac-12 to greatly outnumber the SEC. In Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s All-American team, the SEC has four members, while the Pac-12 only has two. These two publications aren’t always identical, but they won’t be that much different.

Of course I am going to point to the last few stats that say the SEC is the best conference because I am an SEC fan. You may be a Pac-12 fan and point to the overall stats. Regardless, it is safe to say that the SEC and Pac-12 are the best conferences in the NCAA today. If you think I left out an important factor, let me hear it! It is a fun debate and I welcome all feedback/arguments.