SEC football teams will face three more bowl teams, on average, than Pac-12 teams will during the 2017 college football season.
Though previous records and preseason hype are not an accurate predictors of future success — as Michigan State rudely found out in 2016 after they plummeted from 12 wins to three, the largest drop in the FBS — it's still an interesting note on teams and conferences face the most teams who were successful the year before. And in 2017, many of those teams play in the ACC and SEC, whose members face far more opponents coming off good seasons than the other eight conferences.
Eight conference have an opponents' winning percentage above .500 but the ACC and SEC are the only two above .550. They're also the only two whose members, on average, play more than seven teams with a winning record and more than eight teams who made a bowl appearance.
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The Big 12 is the only power conference who's eclipsed by any Group of Five conference in any of the three categories (opponent win percentage, opponents with a winning record, opponents with bowl appearances). While they have a higher opponent winning percentage than the Mountain West, the 12-team Mountain West has a higher number of average opponents with a winning record and higher number of average opponents with a bowl appearance.
Here's a breakdown of 2017 schedules for each conference, sorted by overall opponent winning percentage:
| Conference | Opps. Win Pct. | Avg. Opps. With Winning Record | Avg. Opps. With Bowl App. |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEC | .570 | 7.5 | 9.1 |
| ACC | .562 | 8 | 8.4 |
| Pac-12 | .542 | 6.1 | 5.9 |
| Big Ten | .533 | 6.3 | 7.7 |
| Big 12 | .531 | 5.7 | 7 |
| Mountain West | .524 | 6.4 | 7.1 |
| AAC | .520 | 5.6 | 6.7 |
| Sun Belt | .513 | 5.6 | 6.2 |
| Conference USA | .477 | 4.7 | 6.1 |
| MAC | .469 | 4.4 | 5.6 |
