Interesting question as who is best and spread through top 3 or 4 conferences in football. Went to my ol' standby "Massey" to see their end 2022 ratings by conference P5 adjusted for teams transferring in and out (excluded ND). Show below overall average conference ratings, best rated team, median rated team and worst rated teams:
Sec 29.8, 1, 24, 76
B10 36.9, 3, 28, 97
B12 39.3, 7, 42, 63
ACC 52.0, 10, 49, 96
PAC 53.0, 11, 60, 117
How to judge, decided would take average team ratings by conference and judge each by how much higher the average was vs. the next worst team (i.e, is there more % difference between best the SEC and 2nd best the B10 or 3rd best B12 and the 4th best ACC, etc.)
B10 vs. SEC is = 24% higher
B12 vs. B10 is = 7% higher
Acc vs. B12 is = 32% higher
PAC vs. Acc is = 2% higher
Based on above would suggest that B12 is quite clearly # 3 football conference and is closer to B10 than would have thought.
Also interesting:
1. How much one bad team impacts conference averages with Colorado being #117 in 2022 and bringing up the averaged for Pac10 from 46 to 53.
2. How close B12 average was to B10 (vs. difference from SEC to B10).
3. B12 had by far the "least bad team" as bottom dweller in Kansas at #63 where even SEC had a #76 in Vanderbilt.
4. How bad the ex BE teams at time of BCU leaving were overall:
Pitt #28, Fruit #54, Miami # 71, Rutgers # 81, BCU # 95, VT #96. Good thing for ACC they picked good football schools.