SEC / Pac12 Challenge Computer Simulation (Today: Ole Miss vs. Wash St.)

GAME ONE: Florida Gators 41 @ California Bears 19

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Who's better? Our SEC/Pac-12 Challenge will finally settle the score

By Mike Herndon | mherndon@al.com
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on May 22, 2014 at 11:15 AM

The SEC is typically regarded as the strongest college football conference in the country, a point underscored by the league's seven-year run of BCS national titles from 2006-12 and its place last season atop ESPN Stats & Information's conference power rankings.

Finishing second in those rankings was the Pac-12, buoyed by the success of Stanford and Oregon and boasting nine bowl teams in 2013.

As college football prepares for the playoff era, several of its coaches, including a few from the Pac-12, spent part of their time this spring blasting the SEC for maintaining an eight-game conference schedule (the Pac-12 plays nine). "Don't back down from playing your own conference," Stanford's David Shaw said.

Enough with the jawing. We decided to pit teams from the two conferences against each other in a regular-season round-robin, similar to basketball's SEC-Big 12 Challenge.

Welcome to the SEC-Pac 12 Challenge.

Using the college football simulator at ncaagamesim.com, AL.com matched the SEC's top 12 teams last season against their Pac-12 counterparts. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll reveal the outcome of those games-one by one, working our way up from the two 12th-seeded teams-until we see how the league's big dogs, Auburn and Stanford, fared against each in their virtual battle.

The first installment: Florida (4-8) at California (1-11)

We alternated which conference received the home field. The Pac-12 won the coin toss as Cal played Florida in Berkeley.

The result: Florida 41, California 19

The stats: Four Florida quarterbacks -- Tyler Murphy, Skyler Mornhinweg, Jeff Driskel and Trey Burton -- combined to throw for 289 yards, with Murphy throwing two touchdowns and Valdez Showers rushing for one score and catching another. Solomon Patton caught eight passes for 147 yards and a touchdown and Mack Brown led the Gators on the ground, rushing for 97 yards and a score.

Jared Goff threw for 275 yards and an interception for Cal, with Jeffrey Coprich running for the Bears' only touchdown and Vincenzo D'Amato kicking four field goals.

Cal held an early 13-10 lead after D'Amato's second field goal was set up by a Jeff Driskel interception, but Showers' 3-yard TD run put the Gators on top for good and Florida outscored Cal 31-6 the rest of the way. Florida held the Bears to 81 yards rushing on 20 attempts.

Statistical leaders:

Passing:

Florida: Tyler Murphy, 11-19-111-1-2; Skyler Mornhinweg, 5-6-97-1-0; Jeff Driskel 3-6-48-0-0; Trey Burton, 1-1-33-0-0. California: Jared Goff, 23-42-275-1-0; Zach Kline, 2-4-19-1-0.

Rushing:

Florida: Mack Brown, 17-97-1; Kelvin Taylor, 12-68; Valdez Showers, 4-28-1; Matt Jones, 5-25. California: Jared Goff, 6-22; Darren Ervin, 3-17; Daniel Lasco, 3-16; Brandon Bigelow, 4-15; Jeffrey Coprich, 2-11-1.

Receiving:

Florida: Solomon Patton, 8-147-1; Quinton Dunbar, 6-100; Valdez Showers, 2-8-1. California: Chris Harper, 4-43; Bryce Treggs, 4-22; Kenny Lawler, 3-36; Brandon Bigelow, 2-32; Darius Powe, 2-27; Lucas King, 1-46.

Ten-game results: In running 10 simulations, with each team listed as the home team for five games, Florida was the winner nine times.

So, the SEC goes up 1-0 in the virtual challenge. Check us out tomorrow for the match-up between Tennessee and Colorado.