1. Big 10
Perhaps this is a case of regionalism rearing its head, but no conference had a better year in 1993, and it looks as if its 99th football season could be a memorable one. The Big 10 sent seven teams to bowls and landed three in the final coaches’ Top 10. Wisconsin returns most of the best players from its 10-1-1 team, but still isn’t favored to return to Pasadena. The Big 10 boasts two of the leading preseason Heisman Trophy favorites in Tyrone Wheatley of Michigan and Brent Moss of Wisconsin and a leading Butkus Award candidate in Dana Howard of Illinois.
2. Southeastern
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Down south they’ll insist the SEC is the best conference in the country, and it did have a better non-conference record than the Big 10 last year (28-7-1 vs. 23-10-0). But four Big 10 schools played its neighborhood bully, Notre Dame, while only one SEC school played Florida State. The SEC split its four bowls and was blown away in the only postseason head-to-head matchup between the leagues (Penn State 31, Tennessee 13). There are loads of good players, but most of the coaches’ 1993 all-conference team did not return.
3. Pac-10
A wide-open and entertaining league will benefit from the rebirth of Southern Cal and UCLA. Washington disgraced the conference, but relative newcomer Arizona might make noise nationally.
4. Big Eight
The league could produce three Top 20 teams this year, but the quality drops off rapidly in the middle and bottom. The conference is likely to become potent when Texas and Texas A&M lead the expansion to the Big 12 in 1996.
5. Big East
Miami’s expected resurgence is good news for a league wracked by off-season turmoil. It is possible that the Big East has the nation’s best Division I-A team (the Hurricanes) and its worst (Temple). Virginia Tech, Syracuse, West Virginia and Boston College are capable of surprising Miami, but for the best action Big East fans will have to wait for basketball season.
6. Atlantic Coast
What is there after Florida State? Not much. North Carolina returns only eight starters from last year’s fine 10-victory team. The league split its four bowls last year.
7. Southwest
It’ll soon be gone, and so may its showcase game, the Cotton Bowl. With the league ready to dissolve in two years, it will be interesting to see how much acrimony spills into the final conference meetings between some schools. The rest of the nation may miss the best action because defending champ Texas A&M is banned by television due to NCAA probation.
8. Western Athletic
Purdue’s 59-56 loss to Minnesota last year led to a defensive coaching shakeup in West Lafayette. If WAC schools reacted so strongly to hundred-point games, no one could keep a staff together for more than five minutes.