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Tuesday, October 9, 2012
 SEC surpasses Big 12 as No. 1 rated league
By David Ubben

 The Big 12's held on all season, but the SEC finally passed it for the No. 1 spot in the ESPN Stats & Info Conference Power Rankings.

The Big 12 still has the No. 1 spot in the computer polls, but the Big 12 took a hit in the human polls after just four Big 12 teams showed up in Sunday's AP rankings. The SEC took the lead by a full point after steadily creeping up on the Big 12 since the rankings debuted.

ESPN Stats & Information College Football Conference Power Rankings

Rank Conference AP Rank Computers Rank Overall Rating Rating Change
1 SEC 1 2 95.6 0.7
2 Big 12 2 1 94.5 -0.9
3 Pac-12 3 3 84.0 1.6
4 Big Ten 6 4 49.4 -2.9
5 Big East 4 6 48.7 8.3
6 ACC 5 5 47.8 -6.9
7 WAC 7 7 23.7 -0.7
8 MWC 8 8 21.1 0.6
9 MAC 9 10 19.6 0.7
10 Sun Belt 11 9 19.1 -0.3
11 C-USA 10 11 17.2 -0.6


What was the biggest factor for the move? From the Stats & Info Blog:
Losses by Top-5 teams LSU and Georgia did not impact the SEC’s conference ranking because they lost to teams that were also in the Top 10.

On the other hand, losses by TCU and Texas Tech impacted the Big 12 in the rankings since they lost to teams with worse records entering the game.

The computers still favor the Big 12 over the SEC due to the depth of the conference, but the gap has narrowed. The SEC’s dominance in the polls has vaulted the conference into first place for the first time since the final conference power rankings of the 2011 season.

It's going to be a tight race all season, but for now, the SEC's pulled ahead by a nose.