Peter Burns slammed the Big Ten as a “CFB Ponzi scheme,” arguing they prop up a few contenders while the rest of the league is “hot garbage.” Edit by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media.
By Sam Neumann on

Peter Burns really doesn’t like the Big Ten.

Not exactly a shocker. He’s an SEC Network host, after all, and one of the conference’s loudest cheerleaders. Burns has been relentless about pushing the narrative that the SEC remains the undisputed gold standard in college football, even when the results haven’t quite backed that up lately.

He’s insisted repeatedly that the Big Ten hasn’t surpassed the SEC, and, yes, he’s gone so far as to call the Big Ten a “Ponzi scheme.”

But what’s interesting is how he got there. ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg recently highlighted that no league owns the media spotlight quite like the SEC does. At the spring meetings, the SEC staged a full week of media events, while the Big Ten barely made a blip at its own gathering last week. Rittenberg called it a savvy move by the SEC, especially after a season where the league was objectively a bit down.

On top of that, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti just isn’t as aggressive in courting the media as SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.

The SEC knows how to make headlines, and Burns seems to understand that game, too.

“The Big 10 is quiet because they understand over half of their league is hot garbage and only prop up the small amount of true quality contenders they have,” Burns wrote.

When Ohio State won the national championship, following Michigan’s title the year before, it marked the first time since 1942 that Big Ten teams had won back-to-back titles. After years of SEC dominance, the narrative around college football is shifting in this era of NIL and player empowerment (and movement).

Burns at the time called the love affair with the Big Ten “nonsense,” chalking up Michigan and Ohio State’s wins as “nice outliers.”

And maybe they are. So what keeps the Big Ten’s reputation afloat if it’s not media coverage?

“They run a highly successful CFB Ponzi scheme,” he added.

Come again?

You don’t hear anyone calling the Big Ten a “Ponzi scheme” every day. It’s definitely an interesting take, if a bit over the top.

Sure, facts can be twisted to fit any narrative. But there’s no denying what actually happened on the field this past season and the year prior. It doesn’t erase the SEC’s dominance in years past, nor does it mean that dominance can’t return. But right now, the Big Ten is enjoying its moment in the sun.

And no matter how loudly Peter Burns and others claim the SEC is — and always will be — number one, the Big Ten isn’t some kind of scam where success is just an illusion built on quick payoffs to early believers.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann