The perception of the SEC in college football appears to be shifting after the Big Ten won the last three national championships, and with the SEC not even appearing in any of those three College Football Playoff National Championship games.
Not to Booger McFarland.
The ESPN college football and NFL analyst appeared on Thursday’s edition of The Dan Patrick Show and made it clear that he thinks the SEC is still the top conference in college football.
“Make no mistake about it… the best conference in America is still the SEC.”
– @ESPNBooger isn’t buying the narrative that the SEC isn’t the best conference in college football anymore. pic.twitter.com/DraiqUgKGO
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) January 22, 2026
“I think we have recency bias,” McFarland, who serves as an analyst on ESPN’s CFP weekly rankings show and the selection show, told Dan Patrick. “We always have, and we always have, we always will. The Big Ten has won three in a row. Right now, the Big Ten is the preeminent conference in college football, because they have won three in a row and they have done it with three different teams.”
“This era of college football has been changed based on the NIL and the transfer portal,” McFarland said. “And (Nick) Saban said it best: it’s hard to get kids from down South to go up North unless you’re paying them. Well, guess what? We’re paying them now. Hey, I know he said that tongue-in-cheek, but there’s some validity to it.”
“Now, the playing field has become leveled, so to speak,” McFarland added. “But all things are cyclical. But make no mistake about it. And I’m telling you and your cronies right now the same thing. The best conference in America is still the SEC. And if you don’t believe me, just ask (SEC commissioner) Greg Sankey.”
“It just feels like, hey, now everybody can pay, “Patrick said. “And as I was told, you either have tech money or oil money. And some of these schools in the SEC do not have tech money and oil money. Indiana winning the national title would be like [Vanderbilt] winning the national title.”
“And Vandy won, what, 10 games this year?” McFarland responded. “So, Vandy was close. Vandy was on the precipice. To your point, which would I rather have? I’d rather have oil money. Because oil money is pumping daily. It’s coming out of the ground. So, at some point, the tech industry goes up and down. We’ve seen that. Just go back and look at our stock market over the last 40 years. Tech goes up and down. You know what’s not going up and down? That stuff that’s coming out of the ground. Because it’s coming out of the ground every day.”
It’s not exactly shocking that an ESPN analyst who also starred in the SEC as a defensive tackle at LSU is going to come across as a homer for the conference. McFarland ranked high on Awful Announcing’s 2025 college football media bias rankings, as voted by readers.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.