The college football world saw the second consecutive year where the national champion did not come from the SEC, the country’s most dominant conference in the past several decades. Instead, both champions came from the Big Ten. First, in 2023, the Michigan Wolverines defeated the Washington Huskies in their final year in the Pac-12. Then, in 2024, the Ohio State Buckeyes won the most recent national championship, beating Notre Dame in the first edition of the 12-team playoff.
While the Big Ten has been the victors as of late, a top SEC basketball coach jumped in to defend his conference in its top sport.
During his appearance on the Gary Parrish Show, Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl discussed the schedules of the average Big Ten school compared to the schedule of an SEC team. An SEC schedule remains by far tougher in his eyes.
“Now, you’re at Ohio State, or you’re at Penn State — two teams that got deep into the playoffs… They only had two or three games on the entire schedule that were about seven or eight games for Ole Miss or Alabama or Auburn, or any of the SEC teams. And I think those football guys were exhausted,” Pearl said.
Pearl isn’t wrong about the tough schedules. The SEC played some of the toughest schedules in 2024 and because of that, many teams saw themselves getting upset in the regular season play. According to SI, the SEC had the six most difficult schedules in the top 25. Meanwhile, the Big Ten was just behind them with five teams. But the SEC has the top six spots in this rankings with the Big Ten topping out at No. 7.
However, when it came to bowl games, the SEC didn’t fare well against the Big Ten. They went 8-7 overall in bowls but 1-5 in bowl games in Big Ten-SEC matchups.
If we were to look at what each team did in 2024 in each conference, only three teams didn’t make a bowl game in the SEC. On top of that, eight teams won nine games or more. That is half of the conference.
Looking at the Big Ten, five teams didn’t make it into bowl season. Conversely, five teams were able to get 10 wins or more. The SEC only had three. However, after their five teams of 10+ wins, the rest of the field had totals of eight and seven wins.
Coach Bruce Pearl may have a point, but the better individual team seems to
have come from the Big Ten in the last two years. With the 12-team College Football Playoff still being altered after a few hiccups in its first edition, it could just be an off-year for the SEC.
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