Do you ever get tired of the SEC vs Pac-12 discussion about which football conference is better? Well we did, too. Is the SEC the best football conference? Or, is the Pac-12 the best?
Truth is, both conferences are exceptional. Both have won their fair share of National Championships. Both have some decent college football programs as members. And, both have seen some of the best players to ever grace a football field. But, which conference is the better of the two?
We did some number crunching – because that’s what we do – and you might be surprised at what we found. Our findings are based on the all-time head-to-head football games between each of the member schools of both conferences. This includes regular season and bowl games. Some games may have been played before a particular school became a member of the SEC or Pac-12, since a few games predate the founding of the SEC in 1932. Doesn’t matter with us. All we care about are head-to-head matchups in our calculations.
Methodology
We used Stassen’s opponent vs. opponent database for games through 2013. We threw out the old Big 8-Big 12 Missouri vs. Colorado games because the two schools used to be in the same conference. Mizzou leads the all-time series 41-31-3 – by far the most games played between a member of the SEC vs. a member of the Pac-12. Probably wouldn’t have skewed the numbers too much keeping it in, but we took it out anyway. We then totaled each of the head-to-head records and placed them in our wonderful, interactive table below.
Interactive SEC vs. Pac-12 Head-to-Head Table
Below is the SEC vs. Pac-12 all-time head-to-head records for each team. Click on any of the fields in the header to sort by head-to-head matchup, wins, losses, ties, and winning percentage by team in ascending and descending order. Read the table from left to right, SEC team vs. Pac-12 team. Conference totals are at the bottom of the table. Scroll below the table to check out our findings.
SEC vs Pac-12 | vs Arizona | vs ASU | vs Cal | vs Colo | vs Oregon | vs OSU | vs Stanford | vs UCLA | vs USC | vs Utah | vs UW | vs WSU | W | L | T | Win Pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alabama Crimson Tide | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0-1 | 1-2 | 5-2 | 0-1 | 4-0 | 1-0 | 15 | 7 | 1 | .674 |
Arkansas Razorbacks | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-1-1 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 5 | 6 | 1 | .458 |
Auburn Tigers | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | .714 |
Florida Gators | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 1-0-1 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 5 | 4 | 1 | .550 |
Georgia Bulldogs | 0-0-1 | 2-0 | 2-0 | 1-1 | 1-0 | 3-0 | 0-1 | 2-0 | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 11 | 5 | 1 | .677 |
Kentucky Wildcats | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 |
LSU Tigers | 3-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | 5-1 | 3-1 | 4-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2-0 | 3-0 | 0-0 | 22 | 4 | 0 | .846 |
MSU Bulldogs | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 |
Missouri Tigers | 3-0 | 4-3 | 2-4-1 | 41-31-3* | 1-0 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 0-2-1 | 1-2 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 13 | 15 | 2 | .467 |
Ole Miss Rebels | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
South Carolina Gamecocks | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 |
Tennessee Volunteers | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 0-0-1 | 0-1 | 1-0-1 | 0-0 | 7-6-2 | 0-4 | 3-0 | 0-0 | 4-1 | 17 | 14 | 4 | .543 |
Texas A&M Aggies | 1-0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 3-6 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 2-2 | 0-3 | 2-1 | 2-1 | 2-0 | 14 | 15 | 0 | .483 |
Vanderbilt Comodores | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 |
Total SEC vs Pac 12 All-Time Records | 7-0-1 vs Arizona | 9-3 vs ASU | 9-9-1 vs Cal | 13-9-1 vs Colo | 7-4 vs Oregon | 11-2-1 vs OSU | 2-4-1 vs Stanford | 14-17-4 vs UCLA | 11-22-1 vs USC | 9-3 vs Utah | 10-2 vs UW | 9-1 vs WSU | 111 Wins | 76 Loss | 10 Ties | .589 |
Sorry Pac-12, our findings favor the SEC, big time.
- The SEC has an all-time record of 111-76-10 (152-107-13 when you add MU-CU) and a winning percentage of .589 in head-to-head matchups against Pac-12 teams.
- The LSU Tigers own the Pac-12 Conference in football. LSU has the best head-to-head record of any SEC or Pac-12 team. The Tigers are 22-4 overall with a winning percentage of .846 against the Pac-12. Wonder how many National Championships LSU could have won if it had joined the Pac-12 instead of the SEC?
- The Ole Miss Rebels have never played a Pac-12 team in football. Vandy has played one, Kentucky and South Carolina each played two, and MSU has played three games against opponents from the Pac-12.
- USC has a 22-11-1 record against SEC football teams and a winning percentage of .662. Best by far of the Pac-12 schools in matchups against the SEC. Two other Pac-12 teams have winning records against the SEC – Stanford and UCLA. Cal is stuck on .500.
- The Kentucky Wildcats have never lost a football game to a Pac-12 opponent. Yes, Big Blue is 2-0 all-time against the Pac-12. In both victories, the Wildcats stuck it to the Beavers from Oregon State.
- Tennessee has played the most football games against Pac-12 opponents, a total of 35 games. Mizzou (30 not counting CU games) is next, followed by Texas A&M (29), LSU (26), Alabama (23), and Georgia (17).
- Alabama has the only winning record among SEC teams against the USC Trojans. Bama has taken 5 out of 7 games from the Boys from Troy dating back to 1938.
- In 1990, Colorado’s 11-1-1 National Championship season was marred by a 31-31 tie against Tennessee in the season opener and the Five Downs Game against Missouri during the sixth week. In the Five Downs Game, the Buffs were allowed an extra down to score a touchdown and win on the game’s final play.
- The SEC holds a 16-3-1 record against the two Arizona schools, an 18-6-1 record against the two Oregon schools, and a 19-3 record against the two Washington schools. Yep, that’s 53-12-5 or a .793 winning percentage against half of the Pac-12.
- The very first meeting between SEC and Pac-12 teams took place on October 21, 1921. That day Texas A&M beat Arizona 17-13.
- The second meeting between future members of the SEC and Pac-12 was on Christmas Day back in 1924. USC beat Mizzou 20-7 in the Los Angeles Christmas Festival Bowl, giving the Tigers its only loss that year. Missouri returned the favor in 1976 by beating the Trojans 46-25 at the Coliseum. USC finished 11-1 that year, #2 in the final polls behind Pitt.
- In 1926, Alabama became the first southern college football team to be invited to play in the Rose Bowl. The Tide beat the Washington Huskies 20-19 in its first game against a future Pac-12 opponent. Bama is 4-0 all-time against UW.
So, what does the future hold? Our key takeaways.
If you know anyone that spouts rhetoric about the Pac-12 being better than the SEC in football, feel free to send them our way. We will be happy to inform them of the truth. And The truth is in black and white here. Also, don’t give me that, “Who has the better record in the 2000’s” crap. The SEC was 9-11 against the Pac-12 in the 2000’s, not counting Mizzou and TAMU, big deal. What about the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s? Why not look those numbers up?
Oh well, back to the games. Auburn and Wazzu are playing in 2013. Gus Malzahn vs. Mike Leach. All kidding aside, that one might very well be a decent game. A&M and USC play in 2015 and 2016. Tennessee meets USC in 2021 and 2022. That’s all of the SEC Pac-12 football games scheduled in the future unless we get some bowl game action.
There are some things on our wish list that we would love to see happen between the SEC and Pac-12 in the coming years. We leave you with a short list of SEC and Pac-12 schools that have never met on a football field. These are games that really need to be scheduled:
#1. South Carolina vs. Oregon State – The Cocks versus the Beavers – an arousing combination to say the least.
#2. Vanderbilt vs. Stanford – We know these guys are smart, but how come they’ve never met on the gridiron? I know – why don’t we settle who’s the smartest on the football field.
#3. Ole Miss vs. Any Pac-12 football team – Come on Rebels, forget Boise, Idaho, and Fresno – schedule a Pac-12 team already.
#4. Alabama vs. Oregon – Hey Duck fans, you’re 4-7 against the SEC all-time. Add this game and you’re 4-8.
#5 A couple of SEC vs Pac-12 bowl games every year – Come on, at least somebody would go to the game. Fan support was definitely lacking at a few of the venues this year.
Thanks for reading and hope we didn’t offend anyone. It’s all in good fun anyway. Please leave a comment below if we missed anything. As always, thanks from your friends at SEC Football Online.