Golf After Dark: Conference Power Rankings

Welcome back to Golf After Dark. Slide on those putter covers and talk birdie to me.

This week, we’ll look at the preseason Conference Power Rankings, but this time around we’ll bring in the women’s rankings, too. Yep, that’s right, two sets of rankings for the cost of one. You’re welcome America! As always, Rankings are from Golfstat

A reminder on how the conference rankings are determined:

• Average rank for conference teams in the Top25. It gives a snapshot of the conference in the Top25, but it rewards conferences for not having ranked teams.
• Percentage of teams ranked in their own conference
• Percentage of teams ranked in the Top25.

Each metric is given equal weight and then ranked. The conference with the lowest score (1 being best, 4 being worst) will be sit atop the Power Rankings.

We’ve got ourselves a tie at the top. The Big12 continues its dominance but replaces perennial top 5 team, Texas, with their Tech school counterpart. The ACC is at the top with it’s strength in numbers throughout the Top Ten and towards the latter half of the Top25. It’s easily the deepest conference, but it may not have the firepower of Texas+.

Meanwhile, the Pac12 and SEC are similar on paper, but the SEC has more members, so that dilutes their brand, and the Pac12 has two teams ranked higher than the highest ranked SEC squad.

Men’s Rankings

Big12 5 Points

Average Top25 Rank: 10 (1-Oklahoma, 2-Texas Tech, 12-Baylor, 25-Texas)

Number of Conference Teams Ranked: 5 of 10 (50%)

Teams Ranked in the Top25: 5 of 25 (20%)

ACC: 5 points:

Average Top25 Rank: 11.7 (3-GT, 7-Duke, 8-ND, 9-WF, 15-Louisville, 16-UNC, 24-Clemson)

Number of Conference Teams Ranked: 7 of 15 (47%)

Teams Ranked in the Top25: 7 of 25 (28%)

Pac12: 9 points:

Average Top25 Rank: 15.6 (10-ASU, 11-Arizona, 17-Washington, 18-UCLA, 22-Oregon State)

Number of Conference Teams Ranked: 5 of 12 (42%)

Teams Ranked in the Top25: 5 of 25 (20%)

SEC: 11 points:

Average Top25 Rank: 19.2 (13-aTm, 19-UGA, 20-Arkansas, 21-Auburn, 23-Vanderbilt)

Number of Conference Teams Ranked: 5 of 14 (36%)

Teams Ranked in the Top25: 5 of 25 (20%)

This is surprising because the SEC boasts 8 (8!) teams in the Top25. However, the Pac12 has four teams in the the TopTen compared to the SEC’s three, and all four teams are ranked higher than the SEC’s highest ranked team.

The ACC and Big12 are anchored by their bell cows, Wake Forest and Texas, respectively. Other than that, each have one team in the mid teens, and one in the 20’s. Not great, Bob!

Women’s Rankings

Pac12: 5 points:

Average Top25 Rank: 9.5 (2-Arizona St, 5-USCw, 6-Stanford, 7-Arizona, 17-Oregon, 20-UCLA)

Number of Conference Teams Ranked: 6 of 12 (50%)

Teams Ranked in the Top25: 6 of 25 (24%)

SEC: 6 points:

Average Top25 Rank: 14 (8-USCe, 9-UF, 10-Alabama, 11-Ole Miss, 16-LSU, 18-Arkansas, 19-Vanderbilt, 21-Kentucky)

Number of Conference Teams Ranked: 8 of 14 (57%)

Teams Ranked in the Top25: 8 of 25 (32%)

ACC: 7 points:

Average Top25 Rank: 12.7 (4-WF, 12-Duke, 22-VT)

Number of Conference Teams Ranked: 3 of 15 (20%)

Teams Ranked in the Top25: 3 of 25 (12%)

Big12: 9 points:

Average Top25 Rank: 13.7 (1-Texas, 15-Oklahoma St, 25-Baylor)

Number of Conference Teams Ranked: 3 of 10 (30%)

Teams Ranked in the Top25: 3 of 25 (12%)