Auburn football: Ranking the other Power Five conferences behind the SEC

Whatever is left is certainly behind the ACC and Big Ten

Is the Big 12 even a thing anymore? Without Texas and Oklahoma, who exactly are the torch-bearers for the conference? At the moment, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, and Iowa State are the new ruling class, but those programs don’t have any sustained history of winning New Year’s Six bowl games and have not been much of a thorn in the side of the Sooners for a long time.

Both the Big Ten and AAC are rumored to be interested in poaching the remains of the Big 12, and the AAC doing some may just put the American in the conversation to be a Power Five conference itself down the line, with programs like Cincinnati and UCF putting it in the national conversation regularly.

And what about the Pac-12? Oregon, Stanford, and USC are all top programs, but none have put a hat into the ring of the College Football Playoff besides the 2014 Oregon Ducks and 2016 Washington Huskies. Together, they amassed a 1-2 record and brought no championships to the west coast.

If the Pac-12 and Big 12 merge, maybe they have a case to be above the ACC. Certainly not at this moment, however.