Before the bowl season began, talking heads and pundits openly declared the Big Ten was the best football conference in America.
Not only did it have Ohio State in the College Football Playoff, but Michigan was going to the Orange Bowl, Wisconsin to the Cotton Bowl and Penn State to the Rose Bowl.
All were major bowls, so it seemed obvious the Big Ten had replaced the mighty SEC.
All the talking heads and pundits, including yours truly, should have worn clown suits we were so wrong.
The Big Ten's only wins came in the Holiday, the Pinstripe and the Cotton bowls.
Instead of the Big Ten being Mr. Football, it is little sister, and if that offends anyone other than Big Ten fans, please accept my apology.
The undisputed king of swing is the Atlantic Coast Conference, and that is regardless of what happens Monday in Tampa, Fla., when ACC champion Clemson takes on SEC and defending national champion Alabama.
Part of the problem for the ACC is that it has an identity crisis. When one thinks of the ACC, it is usually about basketball, rarely football.
Currently, there are seven ACC basketball teams ranked in the top 25, two more could be, and not one has a losing record as conference play ramps up.
When you think great college basketball programs in the past 40 years, Duke and North Carolina are always top five.
However, the ACC stands 8-3 in football bowls with one to go. It is 3-1 against the Big Ten, with Florida State edging Michigan, Boston College getting by Maryland and Clemson blowing away Ohio State in on CFP semifinal 31-0.
The Buckeyes proved beyond a shadow of a doubt they did not belong in the playoffs. Even though Penn State would lose a heartbreaker on a last second field goal to Southern Cal, the Nittany Lions were the Big Ten champs and should have been treated as such.
Much also was said and written about the East Division of the Big Ten, and it finished 0-4, although the East teams played better competition overall than the West teams.
The ACC's one loss to the Big Ten was Pitt falling to Northwestern 31-24.
It is 3-1 against the SEC, with North Carolina State beating Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech rallying for 35 consecutive points to beat Arkansas, and Georgia Tech topping Kentucky. Its one loss was LSU handing Louisville its head.
The only other loss the ACC suffered was 25-23 by North Carolina against Stanford.
Because of Alabama, the SEC is probably the second best -- practically an unknown term in Tuscaloosa these days -- even though it is just 6-6 . In addition to having a losing bowl record against the ACC, the SEC also had a losing record against the American Athletic Conference (thank you, South Carolina) and Big 12, but the only real surprise was Texas A&M falling to Kansas State.
The Aggies and the Hogs have something in common: They didn't like November very much this season.
However, the SEC was perfect against the Pac-12, Big Ten and the Mid-American Conference, but everyone was perfect against the MAC, which went 0-6 in bowl games -- the only conference with a worst winning percentage than the Big Ten.
The Big 12 had only six teams in bowls (the SEC led the way with 12) and went 4-2.
If one of the smaller conferences had a reason to brag it was the Sun Belt, which kicked off bowl season with Arkansas State clobbering Central Florida and going on to a 4-2 bowl record.
All things said and done, no matter what happens Monday, the ACC was the best football conference in the country this year, and it will try to sustain its basketball excellence the next three months.
Sports on 01/04/2017