During a Sooner Caravan Stop in Tulsa a week ago, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops had quite a bit to say when asked about the gap between the SEC and the Big 12.

Among Stoops' comments, published in the Tulsa World were

“Well, it depends on what gap you’re talking about. What are the bottom six doing?”

“"So they've had the best team in college football. They haven't had the whole conference. Because, again, half of 'em haven't done much at all.”

Stoops’ main point was that from top to bottom, the SEC was not better than the Big 12.

Edward Aschoff did a thorough evaluation of the SEC's dominance. Here's another perspective:

In order to evaluate this claim, it is necessary to eliminate the “propaganda” that Stoops was referring to. The BCS Computer Rankings do just that by basing its rankings purely on numbers.

Looking at the six computers that comprise the BCS rankings, Stoops’ claim has some validity (though it is important to note that the SEC has four more teams in its conference).

The SEC’s average computer rank was 35.1 (out of 124) and 10 of its 14 teams ranked in the top 50 in the nation.

The Big 12’s average computer rank was 36.9 and eight of its 10 teams ranked in the top 50 in the nation.

Average Computer Ranks

2012 Season

The Big 12 beat up on itself in conference play, but in non-conference games its teams went 30-9 (.769 win percentage), which ranked second in FBS behind the SEC which was 55-12 (.821 win pct).

Entering bowl season, the Big 12 was 26-4 against non-conference opponents, which was the best record of any conference in FBS.

This is not necessarily to say that the Big 12 was a better conference than the SEC. Our final conference rankings show that they are not.

But if anyone is looking for a way to back his claim, the unbiased computers are a great place to look.