Pac 10 v. SEC Baseball
by jim
I'm a huge fan of the SEC, but your site seems a tad partial. I'm not a baseball guru, but the Pac-10 has 26 National Championships(USC-12, ASU-5, Arizona-3, Stanford-2, Cal-2, and Oregon St.-2).
The SEC has 6, all of them in the 90's and five of them from one team, LSU. So how can the SEC historically be the best conference for baseball? Football? no argument, the SEC is the best. Baseball? The Pac-10 is the best.
I've also followed some head to heads this year between the two conferences (regular season) and it seems that the Pac-10 had the advantage (U of A and Oregon State took two out of three from UGA, ASU took two from Arkansas and one from Vanderbilt).
In addition to playing a difficult Pac 10 schedule (These teams constantly beat each other up out in the Pac 10), Pac 10 teams often play outside opponents in the California system (Fresno State, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, Long Beach State, U. San Diego, Pepperdine..). Even some California teams have given the SEC trouble: Cal Poly took two from Alabama this year, UC Irvine did lose in the Super Regional to LSU, but gave them fits (albeit the last game) and obviously Fresno beat UGA in the CWS title series (and I'm not taking anything away from UGA: they played their asses off and are an awesome team and they did beat Stanford twice in the CWS).
I'm not here to bash the SEC, but to merely point out the Pac 10 and the teams out west are extremely competitive. As I said, I'm a huge fan of the SEC and they have a great baseball conference, but I believe in giving credit where credit is due: the Pac-10 is a stronger baseball conference.
Editor's Note: Thanks Jim. Very good points. Strong argument for the Pac-10. You may be right. Although, you can't argue that the SEC had the most teams selected for the NCAA Baseball Tournament; more than the Pac-10 in the CWS (2-1); and of course the SEC had GA in the Championship Series vs no one from the Pac-10.
But, historically -- you are probably right.