The guys on ESPN are saying the PAC-10 was the strongest conference from top to bottom this year; especially if you toss out Washington and Washington State, but both those teams will be much better next year.
Certainly the SEC is the best conference this year at the top of the confernece. No one could seriously argue against that. Next year, the PAC-10 is going to be the best conference in the country. Lots of young teams in the PAC-10 this years and almost all starting QBs are returning.
From top to bottom, the coaching in the PAC-10 is arguably the best in the country; especially on offense.
I’d like to see a metric that figures out conference strength based somewhat upon bowls but also including NFL draftee ranks, SOS numbers, and intraconference rankings at time of play and season start. The issue with the SEC is always to me that some peak so late they end up being overranked based upon timing (Tennessee sems to do this every year) and some get banged up and broken (as Florida probably will this year).