2022 Conferences' Strength of Schedule - # of teams in the top 20 (ESPN):
SEC - 11
BIG - 6
Big12 - 2 (TX and OK are not one of those two; includes TCU at #4)
ACC - 1
PAC12 - 0
Source:
https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi/_/view/resume/group/9/sort/resume.avgsosrank/dir/asc
Don't tell me your road to the CFB championship game just got easier with USC and UCLA leaving (and perhaps OR and WA too). Yes, you rode past perception to a (not single digit) ranking in 2022, but you're looking more like a G5 when you don't schedule tough teams. People are going to catch on that you're afraid to be exposed.
I personally think the PAC and yewts were way overranked. When you play the 41st toughest schedule (Rose Bowl included) and you go 10-4 against it, your ranking is probably due more to past perception than actual performance. Past perceptions don't matter for long when money is on the line (TV contracts, gambling odds)
But can we stop with the talk about yewts even having sniffed a CFB birth in any year? If you don't, the market that doesn't want your crappy offering is going to do it in a very harsh and factual way. Not playing compelling games and losing them when you do is most likely part of the reason there's no media deal - yewt/PAC perception of their worth is so far apart from that of the rest of the world's perception of them that it's taking time. And major partners like FOX won't sniff them until they lower the asking price "a lot"