So you know the Southeastern Conference finished a lackluster 6-6 in non-conference games over the first weekend of college football.

That is not a success rate to which SEC fans can relate.

They expect better and almost always get better.

So I thought it might be interesting to look and see how the other leagues did.

Here goes:

ACC: 10-2. Best win: FSU over Ole Miss. Worst loss: Richmond 37, Virginia 20. All hail the Richmond Spiders …

Rick Cleveland Credit: Melanie Thortis

Big 10: 12-2. Best win: Wisconsin over LSU. Worst loss: Western Michigan 22, Northwestern 21. Those would be the Western Michigan Broncos …

Big 12: 7-3. Best win: Texas over Notre Dame. Worst loss: Northern Iowa 25, Iowa State 20. Those would be the Northern Iowa Panthers.

Pac 12: 7-5. Best win: Stanford over Kansas State. Worst loss: (a tie) Eastern Washington 45, Washington State 42 (those would be the EWU Eagles) and Alabama 52, USC 6 (That would be the, uh, Crimson Tide).

SEC: 6-6. Best win: Bama. Worst loss: South Alabama 21, Mississippi State 20.

Conference USA: 6-4. Best win: USM over Kentucky. Worst loss: Charlotte 14, Louisville 70.

American Athletic: 10-2. Best win: Houston over Oklahoma. Worst loss: Wake Forest 7, Tulane 3. (Final score, not a partial.)

Mountain West: 8-4. Best win: Honestly, there really wasn’t one. Worst loss: Hawaii 3, Michigan 63.

Mid-America: 6-6. Best win: Western Michigan over Northwestern. Worst loss: Albany 22, Buffalo 16. Those would be the University of Albany Great Danes.

Sun Belt: 6-5. Best win: South Alabama over State. Worst loss: Toledo 31, Arkansas State 10. Those Toledo Rockets, by the way, are really good.

SWAC: 1-6. Best (and only) win: Grambling 72, Lynchburg 12. Worst loss: The other six SWAC schools that played non-league games lost by a total score of 327-61. Ouch!


We want to hear from you!

Central to our mission at Mississippi Today is inspiring civic engagement. We think critically about how we can foster healthy dialogue between people who think differently about government and politics. We believe that conversation — raw, earnest talking and listening to better understand each other — is vital to the future of Mississippi. We encourage you to engage with us and each other on our social media accounts, email our reporters directly or leave a comment for our editor by clicking the button below.


Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Rick Cleveland, a native of Hattiesburg and resident of Jackson, has been Mississippi Today’s sports columnist since 2016. A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelor’s in journalism, Rick has worked for the Monroe (La.) News Star World, Jackson Daily News and Clarion Ledger. He was sports editor of Hattiesburg American, executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. His work as a syndicated columnist and celebrated sports writer has appeared in numerous magazines, periodicals and newspapers.
Rick has been recognized 13 times as Mississippi Sports Writer of the Year, and is recipient of multiple awards and honors for his reporting and writing.

One reply on “League vs. league: How they did”

Comments are closed.