Urban Meyer has seen the SEC and Big Ten up close as a national champion head coach in both conferences, and now he believes one has definitely overtaken the other on the football field.
Meyer, who previously coached at Florida and Ohio State, believes the Big Ten has surpassed the SEC in football, at least at the top.
“You know what the SEC has done? It raised the level. But the Big Ten has passed the SEC at the upper part. If you would have told me that 10 years ago, I would’ve said it’s not even close. Because it’s not,” Meyer said on Another Dooley Noted Podcast.
Big Ten teams have won the last two national championships ─ Michigan in 2023 and Ohio State in 2024 ─ and the Buckeyes beat two SEC teams, Tennessee and Texas, on their playoff run.
That came after a stretch where the SEC won five out of six national titles from 2017 to 2022 and a run of dominance in winning 16 national championships since the start of the 21st century.
The shift between the two conferences marks a big change from when Meyer first arrived at Ohio State.
“When I first got to the Big Ten, even [my wife] said, ‘What in the world? This is a slow man’s game up here,’ and I like to think that the Buckeyes really changed that,” Meyer said.
But while the coach believes the Big Ten has jumped the SEC when it comes to the top teams, he still says the SEC is the deepest league in college football, top to bottom.
“That SEC-Big Ten fight, the top obviously the last two years goes to the Big Ten. But still, that middle to the bottom, it’s the SEC by far,” Meyer said.
“You’ve got eight teams, nine teams in the SEC that think they can go win a national title. No other conference has ever had that.”
Counterpoint: Bruce Pearl still thinks SEC is the king of football
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