For the better part of the best decade-plus of college football, the narrative has always been that the SEC was the premiere conference in the sport. But now, Urban Meyer is officially ready to say that the SEC has been passed up by the Big Ten.
Meyer — who won national championships in both conferences — broke down the recent bowl games involving SEC schools on his podcast. The three-time national championship-winning coach believes that the rest of college football has caught up to the SEC in terms of raw talent on the field.
“It really wasn’t close, the Georgia game,” said Meyer on The Triple Option. “Notre Dame…had better athletes. They were a much better football team. Ohio State-Tennessee, Ohio State had much better athletes than University of Tennessee. Illinois-South Carolina, Illinois had better athletes than South Carolina…I’m anxious to see the NFL Draft. I would tell our staff that other than championships, the NFL Draft is the indicator of how you do in recruiting. You can change the helmets on these teams and say these are all SEC teams like it used to be.
“The question is, is the SEC’s dominance over? It is, it’s over. Now, next year is another year. But for two years, it’s over. The Wolverines (last year), it wasn’t even close…You got Texas right now, but are we really calling Texas a blue-blood in the SEC first year? They’re an underdog at Ohio State. I missed on some things. I was part of the SEC bandwagon, as well. I coached in that conference, and top to bottom, it wasn’t even close when I got to the Big Ten in 2012.”
Meyer then went into detail into how the Big Ten has passed up the SEC in the past two seasons, in part due to the conference adding the likes of Oregon, which had helped recruiting in the conference in Meyer’s eyes.
“I think what’s happened is there’s been some additions, obviously, with Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC,” Meyer said. “But also people have really committed in the Big Ten. The upper-echelon Big Ten schools have really jumped on as far as recruiting. … In real time, right now, the Big Ten has passed the SEC for 2023 and 2024.”
Bowl season has undoubtedly hurt the SEC’s claim of being the best conference in college football. But there are a few factors that directly refute Meyer’s claims.
Georgia was of course without starting quarterback Carson Beck in their CFP Quarterfinals matchup against Notre Dame, who suffered a season-ending injury in the SEC Championship against Texas. With Beck in the fold against Notre Dame, who knows if there could have been a different result.
And as Meyer alluded to, Texas remains as the lone SEC team left in the CFP bracket. Should the Longhorns go on to win a national championship, it would be hard to argue that the SEC isn’t at least still on par with the Big Ten.
Still, the Big Ten does have the most teams remaining in the CFP bracket. So at least for the past two seasons, it is hard to argue any of Meyer’s claims of the Big Ten being the best conference in college football.
[The Triple Option on YouTube]
