For years, the SEC was the dominant conference in college football. The Big Ten was always a strong conference, but everyone knew that it was behind the SEC. However, that is changing in recent years.
On Sunday, the Triple Option Instagram posted a clip from a recent episode of its podcast. In the clip, former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer was asked by his cohost, Rob Stone, if the Big Ten is catching up to the SEC in terms of recruiting.
“I think they’ve caught up and last year they were the strongest conference. Actually, the last two years and that’s easy to evaluate. Who held the trophy at the end of the year? It was the Wolverines and then the Buckeyes. The Big Ten added four teams, not just four teams, four legit teams from the Pac-12. USC’s obviously number one in recruiting right now,” he replied.
“They are on the same par and the same conversation. The recruiting rankings, and the other way to evaluate recruiting is the NFL draft. There was a time where the SEC had so many, and they still have more than the other conferences, but any time you want to talk about the strongest conferences, I look at championships and NFL draft and you kind of stop there,” he added.
View this post on Instagram
While speaking about the comparison between the SEC and Big Ten, Urban Meyer mentioned four teams transferring from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten. UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington transferred to the Big Ten before the 2024 season as part of conference realignment.
The Big Ten stopped the SEC from winning the national championship two years in a row for the first time in over a decade
With Ohio State winning the national championship this past season, it marked the second year in a row the Big Ten won the championship game. This was the first time since the 60s that a Big Ten team won the championship two years in a row. Additionally, with Michigan winning in 2023, it was the first time since 2014 that the SEC went two years in a row without winning a championship.
The last time this happened, the ACC’s Florida State won in 2013, followed by Ohio State in the Big Ten in 2014. The Big Ten also had four teams that qualified for the college football playoff in 2024: Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, and Indiana. Conversely, the SEC only had three: Texas, Tennessee and Georgia.
College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and baseball!
