Conference Rankings: Is the Big XII really Elite?

It seems that everyone out of the southeast region of this country feels the need to tell everyone that the Big XII has taken over as the class conference of college football in 2009. Obviously future games will be what determines the best conference in the 2009 season but where exactly does anyone get off thinking that the Big XII has surpassed the SEC? Unless I missed something people really are living in a haze.
Those who feel that the Big XII is better than the SEC at this point feel so because Oklahoma, Texas, and Oklahoma State should all be rated in the top ten of the national polls when they are first released before week one of the season. That's great, three teams in the top ten overall, it couldn't possibly get any better, right?
Wrong. Florida will be your preseason number one and they still reside in the Southeastern Conference. After the Gators, Alabama is nearly a shoe-in to be in the top ten despite losing the majority of their offense from a year ago. Ole Miss has an excellent chance to be the third SEC team ranked in the top ten to start the season which would match the three that the Big XII is able to offer.
Oklahoma and Texas are pegged as teams that just need to get by each other in order to reach the BCS National Championship Game while people see Alabama or Ole Miss as an upset or two away from being able to. I won't argue that I think that both Oklahoma and Texas are better than Alabama or the Rebels but with Florida being #1 in everyone's eyes at this point the Sooners and Longhorns get canceled out.
Both conferences will have three teams in the preseason top-10 in all likelihood. With that said, Nebraska will probably be the only other member of the Big XII in the top-25. A case can be made for Kansas but it will be a close call. The SEC will see Georgia and LSU without a doubt in the top 25 giving them one more in the first set of rankings than the Big XII.
So many people want to come out and say that the Big XII is the elite conference this season when in turn they are actually closer to being on par with the Pac-10 (who will have USC, Cal, and Oregon in the preseason top 15) than they are the SEC just yet.