Here’s how things shape up:

The West was stronger than the East, but not so much because of the teams at the top, which broke pretty evenly.  It’s the suckitude at the bottom of the East that’s the difference there.

A few other observations:

• The top of the conference wasn’t as dominant in 2012 as it was in 2011.  You have to get all the way down to sixth before you see an SDPI figure that’s an improvement.  Is that a reflection of expansion or overall quality?  Beats me.
• Boy, Auburn really sucked last year.  Loeffler being worse than Malzahn isn’t a surprise but VanGorder being a bigger flop than Roof is.  No wonder he’s just a position coach in the NFL now.
• Hugh Freeze did a fine job in his first year at Ole Miss.
• The header is a little tongue in cheek.  Georgia didn’t slide in the offensive rankings, but its SDPI figure did – ever so slightly more than Grantham’s group did, in fact.  (Bobo wasn’t juggling suspensions over the first third of the season, either.)
• LSU slid big time in one season.  Of course, Les chalks that up to the cross-divisional rivalries.  Unfair!
• More and more, Vanderbilt looks like a program that has its bearings.  The numbers show an impressive consistency that’s solid.
• Mississippi State’s consistent, too.  But in the Bulldogs’ case, that’s not really a compliment.
• If TAMU gets a defense, look out, world.