2009 Conferences in Review: #8 WAC

The Western Athletic Conference comes in #8 in my 2009 Conference Rankings.

2009 Conference Champion: Boise State Broncos 14-0 (8-0 WAC)

2009 Bowl Record: 2-2

Bold Prediction for 2010: Idaho almost... almost... beats Boise in what could be the last game between these two rivals in a long, long time. Idaho finishes second in the conference, and Vandals quarterback Nathan Enderle puts up 3500 yards passing.

2009 Conferences in Review: #9 Conference USA

Conference USA occupies #9 in my 2010 Conference Rankings.

2009 Conference Champion: East Carolina Pirates 9-5 (7-1 C-USA)

2009 Conference Runner-Up: Houston Cougars 10-4 (6-2 C-USA)

2009 Bowl Record: 2-4

Bold Prediction for 2010: Houston goes undefeated, but gets left out of the BCS.

2009 Conferences in Review: #10 MAC

The Mid-American Conference occupies #10 in my 2009 Conference Rankings

2009 Conference Champion: Central Michigan Chippewas 12-2 (8-0 MAC)
2009 Conference Runner-Up: Ohio Bobcats 9-5 (7-1 MAC)

2009 Bowl Record: 1-4

Bold Prediction for 2010: Temple wins the MAC.

2009 Conferences in Review: #11 Sun Belt

The Sun Belt Conference occupies #11 in my 2009 Conference Rankings.

2009 Conference Champion: Troy University Trojans 9-4 (8-0 Sun Belt)

2009 Bowl Record: 1-1

Bold Prediction for 2010: Middle Tennessee beats Minnesota in Week 1 and goes on to win the Sun Belt Championship.

Lightsheaber's 2009 Conference Breakdown

In my Conference Breakdown Segment, I will rank conferences using a weighted average, where the conference's best teams count slightly more toward overall rank, but not so much so to offset having extremely poor teams at the bottom. In my weekly column during the season, I will look at the major conference games of the last week and give my thoughts on the games of the next week.

The 2009-10 Conference Rankings:

1	SEC	0.5700
2	BIG 12	0.5671
3	BIG TEN	0.5668
4	ACC	0.5610
5	BIG EAST	0.5584
6	PAC-10	0.5528
7	MTN WEST	0.5523
8	WAC	0.5428
9	C-USA	0.5420
10	MAC	0.5233
11	SUN BELT	0.5175

2009-10 Postseason Rankings

Ranking	Team	W	L	Points
1	Alabama	14	0	0.823
2	Texas	13	1	0.780
3	Boise State	14	0	0.775
4	Florida	13	1	0.774
5	Ohio State	11	2	0.746
6	Texas Christian	12	1	0.745
7	Cincinatti	12	1	0.741
8	Iowa	11	2	0.737
9	Oregon	10	3	0.728
10	Brigham Young	11	2	0.724
11	Virginia Tech	10	3	0.721
12	Penn State	11	2	0.715
13	Pittsburgh	10	3	0.714
14	Wisconsin	10	3	0.704
15	Georgia Tech	11	3	0.700
16	Nebraska	10	4	0.692
17	Central Michigan	12	2	0.686
18	Utah	10	3	0.679
19	Miami FL	9	4	0.670
20	West Virginia	9	4	0.662
21	LSU	9	4	0.661
22	USC	9	4	0.657
23	Oklahoma State	9	4	0.651
24	Navy	10	4	0.644
25	Texas Tech	9	4	0.643
26	Houston	10	4	0.642
27	Middle Tennessee State	10	3	0.638
28	Troy	9	4	0.637
29	Mississippi	9	4	0.636
30	Clemson	9	5	0.629
31	Rutgers	9	4	0.627
32	Oklahoma	8	5	0.625
33	Arkansas	8	5	0.614
34	East Carolina	9	5	0.608
35	Georgia	8	5	0.606
36	Auburn	8	5	0.606
37	Connecticutt	8	5	0.605
38	Arizona	8	5	0.604
39	North Carolina	8	5	0.603
40	Oregon State	8	5	0.602
41	Air Force	8	5	0.595
42	Stanford	8	5	0.595
43	Missouri	8	5	0.594
44	Boston College	8	5	0.586
45	Temple	9	4	0.584
46	Nevada	8	5	0.583
47	Ohio	9	5	0.581
48	South Florida	8	5	0.580
49	Idaho	8	5	0.576
50	California	8	5	0.576
51	Southern Methodist	8	5	0.569
52	UCF	8	5	0.569
53	Fresno State	8	5	0.567
54	Northwestern	8	5	0.564
55	Florida State	7	6	0.543
56	South Carolina	7	6	0.540
57	Tennessee	7	6	0.530
58	UCLA	7	6	0.530
59	Marshall	7	6	0.523
60	Bowling Green	7	6	0.515
61	Iowa State	7	6	0.513
62	Kentucky	7	6	0.510
63	Southern Mississippi	7	6	0.508
64	Wyoming	7	6	0.501
65	Notre Dame	6	6	0.498
66	Northern Illinois	7	6	0.484
67	Kansas State	6	6	0.477
68	Michigan State	6	7	0.460
69	Minnesota	6	7	0.453
70	Texas A&M	6	7	0.451
71	Louisiana Monroe	6	6	0.451
72	Louisiana Lafayette	6	6	0.448
73	Hawaii	6	7	0.423
74	Mississippi State	5	7	0.422
75	Washington	5	7	0.417
76	Purdue	5	7	0.412
77	Kansas	5	7	0.405
78	UAB	5	7	0.405
79	Wake Forest	5	7	0.403
80	North Carolina State	5	7	0.396
81	Buffalo	5	7	0.391
82	UNLV	5	7	0.388
83	Michigan	5	7	0.386
84	Florida Atlantic	5	7	0.384
85	Toledo	5	7	0.376
86	Tulsa	5	7	0.373
87	Kent State	5	7	0.371
88	Duke	5	7	0.370
89	Army	5	7	0.364
90	Western Michigan	5	7	0.357
91	Syracuse	4	8	0.322
92	Baylor	4	8	0.322
93	Arizona State	4	8	0.320
94	Louisville	4	8	0.320
95	Utah State	4	8	0.313
96	Louisiana Tech	4	8	0.311
97	Indiana	4	8	0.308
98	UTEP	4	8	0.305
99	San Diego State	4	8	0.301
100	Arkansas State	4	8	0.293
101	Colorado	3	9	0.243
102	Illinois	3	9	0.239
103	Virginia	3	9	0.231
104	Colorado State	3	9	0.229
105	Akron	3	9	0.224
106	Florida International	3	9	0.224
107	Tulane	3	9	0.223
108	New Mexico State	3	10	0.199
109	Memphis	2	10	0.164
110	Maryland	2	10	0.163
111	Vanderbilt	2	10	0.163
112	San Jose State	2	10	0.160
113	Rice	2	10	0.160
114	North Texas	2	10	0.157
115	Ball State	2	10	0.154
116	Miami OH	1	11	0.111
117	Washington State	1	11	0.108
118	New Mexico	1	11	0.107
119	Eastern Michigan	0	12	0.065
120	Western Kentucky	0	12	0.063