The Twelve Days Before The College Football Playoff. Day 4: Pac-12 vs. Big Ten Conference

So what happens if the Washington Huskies from the Pac-12 Conference and the Ohio State Buckeyes from the Big Ten Conference match up in the National Championship Game? Well, here is what HAS HAPPENED between the two conferences during the Regular Season:

Thursday, September 1st: Oregon State 23, Minnesota 30

Saturday, September 3rd: Rutgers 13, #14 Washington 48

Saturday, September 17th: #22 Oregon 32, Nebraska 35

Saturday, September 17th: Colorado 28, #4 Michigan 45

Based on the above scores alone the Big Ten has a 3-1 lead over the Pac-12. And the home teams also won every game.

But if those scores are averaged out per game, the Pac-12 actually scored more than the Big Ten thanks to Washington pummeling Rutgers. The Pac-12 averaged 32.75 points per contest while the Big Ten averaged 30.75 points per contest.

Four games are not enough to determine which conference is better. That is what it should be maybe after the first few weeks of the regular season but not for the entire regular season.

So there’s only one thing left to do. Look at the common opponents the Pac-12 and the Big Ten faced. Those opponents are BYU, Colorado State, Hawaii and Notre Dame.

The Pac-12 is 7-1 in common opponent games while the Big Ten is 3-1 in those games.

The Pac-12 scored an average of 32.13 points in eight games and gave up 19.25 points per game for a point differential of +12.88. The Big Ten scored an average of 36 points in four games and gave up 21.25 points per game for a point differential of +14.75.

Now, if we combine the head-to-head matchups of the Pac-12 and the Big Ten plus add the common opponent matchups we get the following information:

The Pac-12 scored an average of 32.33 points in 12 games and gave up an average of 23.08 points per game while the Big Ten scored an average of 33.38 points in 8 games and gave up an average of 27 points per game. So the Pac-12 had a point differential of +9.25 while the Big Ten had a point differential of +6.38.

So we know that Big Ten offenses are good and the Pac-12 defenses are good. It appears that the Pac-12 Conference overall is better than the Big Ten (based on these findings alone), but I will not fully confirm that unless one conference scores more and gives up less points than the other conference.

These are the bowl games that have already been played between the Pac-12 and the Big Ten:

December 27th: National Funding Holiday Bowl (Qualcomm Stadium; San Diego, California): Minnesota Golden Gophers (8-4) vs. Washington State Cougars (8-4).

Minnesota 17, Washington State 12

Here are the upcoming bowl games between the Pac-12 and the Big Ten:

December 28th: Foster Farms Bowl (Levi’s Stadium; Santa Clara, California): Indiana Hoosiers (6-6) vs. #19 Utah Utes (8-4), 8:30 p.m. ET, FOX

January 2, 2017: Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual (Rose Bowl; Pasadena, California): #5 Penn State Nittany Lions (11-2) vs. #9 USC Trojans (9-3), 5 p.m. ET, ESPN