The great ACC-SEC baseball debate won't be solved Saturday. Or Monday. Or in Omaha at the College World Series. Or anytime soon.

Which some would say is what makes the debate great to begin with.

"People in the South, it's what they want to talk about," said Georgia first baseman Rich Poythress. "They want to know who is better the SEC or the ACC? The schools are so close [in proximity]. They play each other a lot. And you have fans of both living in the same area."

Apparently, there are no good fences between the two neighboring conferences. What they do have is superiority complexes.

The Southeastern Conference, the standard bearer in college baseball, believes it is still the conference to beat.

"We have a chip on our shoulder because for so long we were the king of the block," said Georgia coach David Perno. "And now these last few years [the ACC] has kind of bumped us out of the way."

The Atlantic Coast Conference teams are the young upstarts; just cocky enough to know their best might be better than the SEC's best.

"[Georgia] will find out maybe in a week out there in Omaha [whether an ACC team is better than it]," said N.C. State coach Elliott Avent after his ACC team lost to Georgia. "I could say something, but it's not fair."

Elliott seems to have said plenty right there.

Now, of course, it's time for the talking to come on the field. The SEC has two teams in the College World Series. Georgia, the No. 8 seed will play No. 1 Miami, Saturday at 7 p.m. LSU, the No. 7 seed will play No. 2 North Carolina Sunday at 7 p.m.

Florida State, another ACC team, is also in as a No. 4 seed on Georgia's side of the bracket.

So right there, the ACC has the SEC, 3-2. But there is more fodder for this debate. So uncork the lighter fluid it is time to juice the flames on one of the college baseball's best debates.

Bulldog past

Georgia was the worst team in the SEC in the 1990s. No one, not even Perno, would argue that fact. The Bulldogs had the worst winning percentage of any team and two teams, Arkansas and South Carolina, weren't even in the conference for the entire decade. Still, Georgia won a national title in baseball.

No pre-expansion ACC team won a title in the 1990s. Miami, which joined the ACC in 2004-05, did win a title in the 90s. The Hurricanes have won four baseball titles — 1982, '85, '99. '01. The ACC does not count those titles in its conference stats.

So the lone ACC College World Series title belongs to Wake Forest (1955).

The SEC has won six titles — five by LSU and one by Georgia.

The ACC has had 34 teams in 55 College World Series.

The SEC has had 52 teams in 55 CWS.

Strength of schedule

According to the computers, and everybody seems to get their fill of those in the football season, Miami played the second hardest schedule in the nation. It lost nine games. Florida State played the ninth toughest schedule. The only team from the SEC in the top 20 was LSU and it was 19th.

As a conference the ACC's RPI was No. 1. The SEC's was No. 4.

But Poythress doesn't believe the computers.

"I think everybody on our team thinks the SEC is the toughest conference," he said. "Top to bottom it is the toughest. There are no letdowns. That separates it from other conferences.

"The ACC is great conference, but usually some years there are some letdown teams in that conference where you are guaranteed a series win. I don't feel like that is the case in the SEC."

The SEC did garner more NCAA bids this year than did the ACC: 9-6.

Talent pool

Finally, talent is a place where the two conferences seem to have played to a draw. In the 2008 MLB draft, the ACC had five players selected in the first round. Florida State catcher Buster Posey went fifth to the San Francisco Giants. Cincinnati picked Miami first baseman Yonder Alonso seventh. Miami second baseman Jemile Weeks went 12th to Oakland. Wake Forest first baseman Allan Dykstra went 23rd to San Diego. Minnesota picked Miami pitcher Carlos Gutierrez No. 27th.

The SEC also had five players selected in the first round. Vanderbilt third baseman Pedro Alvarez went No. 2 to Pittsburgh. Georgia shortstop Gordon Beckham went No. 8 to the Chicago White Sox. Texas took South Carolina first baseman Justin Smoak No. 11. Seattle picked Georgia pitcher Joshua Fields No. 20. South Carolina shortstop Reese Havens was selected by the Mets with the No. 22 pick.

Head to head

The ACC won the head-to-head matchups with the SEC this year, 16-14. But Georgia didn't lose a series to an ACC team this season. It beat Georgia Tech 3-2, N.C. 2-1, Clemson 2-0, and split with Florida State, 1-1.

Miami went 3-1 against the SEC with a 2-1 series win over Florida and a postseason win over Mississippi.

But for Georgia it is not about what it did during the regular season, it is about representing itself better in the CWS. In 2006 Georgia was the lone SEC representative in the CWS and went 0-2.

"I feel obligated to make certain we play better than we did in '06 and represent our conference as well as the university," Perno said. "We have always played well against the ACC. We have always played the Clemsons and the up-tier ACC teams. Georgia Tech, they are always in the front of that league. We have played well against them.

"We have played well against ACC teams not only this year but in year's past."