The SEC Dynasty Is Over and the Big Ten Proved It

Drew Thirion|published: Wed 27th May, 09:46 2026

Apr 26, 2025; Iowa City, IA, USA; A detail view of a logo for the Big Ten Conference is seen during a spring NCAA football open practice at Kinnick Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Cress/For the Register

For years, the people of the South have preached on the strength of the SEC. They believe the conference from top to bottom is the best in college football. Honestly, if this were five years ago, they’d probably be correct.

Unfortunately, we no longer live in the world of Nick Saban, and the SEC isn’t the best conference for football; that belongs to the Big Ten. It has been proven through the playoffs that the top of the Big Ten is the best in the sport, but the middle of the conference has looked great throughout bowl season as well.

Now that the Big Ten has made some big coaching moves, you could even argue the bottom of the conference is just as strong as the bottom of the SEC. I’ll still give the SEC a very slight regard when it comes to the bottom 3-4 teams in each conference, but it’s a close battle either way.

2026 will be the first year that the SEC implements a nine-game conference schedule, and the conference seems worried. Many feel that the additional conference game will so greatly improve the strength of schedule for every SEC team that they’re going to be unjustly punished by the College Football Playoff Committee.

Newsflash, every other conference has been playing a nine-game conference schedule for years, and the committee had still been giving the SEC any benefit of the doubt that they possibly could.

College sports continue to expand their playoffs, diluting the importance of their regular seasons. If you’re going to continue to expand these playoffs foolishly, you need to make sure the regular season actually means something. Allowing a few three-loss SEC teams into the playoffs, just so they won’t get their feelings hurt, is a joke. We've already watched these teams lose their big games. I have no interest in watching them lose those big games one more time.

This past year, we saw the SEC win one playoff game against non-SEC teams, and that was Ole Miss beating non-power four Tulane. The more money funneled into these other conferences and their NIL funds, the more ridiculous it becomes for the sport to shill for the SEC.

I understand that the SEC deserves multiple playoff spots, but I am unwilling to accept that it has three-loss teams more deserving than one- or two-loss teams in other conferences. If the SEC is absent from the championship again this season, we might seriously consider that it is substantially behind the best in the Big Ten.