I think looking at the bowl wins by conference is just for entertainment purposes. I am someone who doesnt think most bowl games mean anything anymore, outside the playoff games. I think the best measure is honestly to just look at how the NFL views each conference. It obviously isnt perfect because there are always good college players who just dont fit with the NFL for whatever reason, and there are talented college teams who maybe arent coached well or something like that so maybe the team isnt great. But if you look at the makeup of the NFL, to start this season there were 335 SEC players on NFL rosters. The next closest conference was the Big 10 with 266, and then the ACC with 208. No other conference had over 200. The SEC has also had more players drafted in 15 straight drafts. Again, I know this isnt the perfect way to look at it, but I also think it is hard to deny that one conference consistently sending more players to the NFL, is probably the most talented conference in college football.
As many have already stated, few people (who are football fans and can be objective) would say the SEC isn't the most talented conference. It sure is, especially in the trenches and at LB. But they can't beat their chests yelling out SEC, and say look at all the SEC wins we have, and then bag on teams like UF when we beat those same SEC schools in bowl games (e.g. UF). If they (SEC fans) are saying the team really isn't very good, then they really weren't that good when Bama/Georgia beat them, etc... Like someone said, they start the season with 7-8 teams ranked and then that mindset sticks with too many people (especially voters and the media) throughout the entire season. There should be no polls until 7-8 games into the season. You can't possibly convince me and say that UF team we played was once, honestly, deserved of a #11 ranking. What, because they almost beat Bama (at home)? It's a road conference game and road conference games are tough. Bama lost @Texas A&M. They are the blueprint and they do everything in their power to not schedule true road games.
Florida finished 6-7:
5-1 at home
0-1 vs Georgia (neutral site)
1-4 on the road
0-1 in bowl game (neutral site)
Let's look at another example. Arkansas finished 9-4. Good season. Let's break down their season:
1. Win - Beat 4-8 Rice at home
2. Win - Beat 5-7 Texas at home
3. Win - Beat 3-9 Georgia Southern at home
4. Win - Beat 8-4 Texas A&M at home
5. Loss - Lost @13-1 Georgia
6. Loss - Lost @10-3 Ole MIss
7. Loss - To 6-7 Auburn at home
8. Win - Beat 2-9 Arkansas Pine-Bluff at home
9. Win - Beat 7-6 Miss St at home
10. Win - Beat 6-6 LSU @LSU
11. Loss - Lost @13-1 Bama
12. Win - Beat 6-7 Mizzou at home
Win - They beat 6-7 Penn State in bowl game at neutral site.
So, they finished 7-1 at home (must be nice having 8 home games). 1-3 for away games, and 1-0 in bowl game (neutral site). They beat 2 teams that finished with a .500 or better record. Two, and those teams finished 7-6 and 8-4. They went 2-3 against all competition that finished .500 or better. 0-3 against competition with 9 or more wins. That is going to get them a top 20 ranking when the final AP Poll comes out, and probably a pre-season top 20 ranking in 2022.
This is the same story for probably 95% of programs, including our own. They win at home. They lose on the road. What sets the good (9-10 wins), very good (11-12 wins), and elite (13 wins or more) teams apart is winning on the road (and their bowl game at a neutral site). It's just that simple, so I have no idea how these pundits spend so much time and effort talking about this or that (other than they have to fill in airtime) about a bunch of minutia when this pretty much sums up every season, for every program.
There's no shame in saying, hey, in 2021 UCF was just a good team for being 9-4. They went 7-0 at home, 1-4 on the road, won a neutral site bowl game. They were 2-2 against teams that finished .500 or better. 0-2 versus teams with 8 or more wins.