Conference Championship Week is upon us, and winning your conference is a major accomplishment, as it should be. With the 12-team playoff now enacted, these games are more valuable than ever.
But in the era of large, mega power conferences, added parity (thanks to NIL/portal), and unbalanced conference schedules, are the "best" teams playing in these title games, or just the most fortunate due to easiest conference schedules? And, more importantly, are the "at-large" playoff bids going to teams with more favorable conference schedules? Let's take a look at the large P4 conferences in 2024 to see if we can identify some of the "best" (legit contenders) or "luckiest" (pretenders) based on conference schedule strength.
We'll start with the Cards' conference, the ACC. Below is a list of the top 7 finishers, which are all the ACC teams that finished the season with a winning record in conference. I've also listed their conference record, their records vs each other (vs teams with winning conference records), and the combined conference records of their conf opponents (for a conf strength of schedule measurement).
ACC
1. SMU 8-0 conf record. (2-0 vs winning teams), (32-32 record for opponents - .500 win pct)
2. Clemson 7-1 (0-1) (23-41, .359)
3. Miami 6-2 (2-2) (29-35, .453)
4. Syracuse 5-3 (2-0) (29-35, .453)
Duke 5-3 (0-3) (32-32, .500)
Louisville 5-3 (2-2) (38-26, .594)
Georgia Tech 5-3 (2-2) (32-32, .500)
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