Urban Meyer, a coach who’s literally won national championships in both conferences, just laid down the law: the Big Ten is now the absolute best conference in college football. He’s got a definitive answer, and it changes everything we thought we knew about the landscape. Meyer himself admitted that for nearly two decades, the SEC dominated the country, bagging 13 of 17 national championships. But hold up, because he said it loud and clear on Week 1’s Big Noon Kickoff: “That all changed three years ago when the Michigan Wolverines, then the Ohio State Buckeyes, and then the Indiana Hoosiers won the national title.” Talk about a seismic shift!
The Big Ten’s Unstoppable Roll On The Field
This isn’t just about a couple of elite teams, either. The Big Ten’s dominance extends well beyond the championship game. In College Football Playoff games, they’ve absolutely owned the SEC with a perfect 4-0 record. And when it comes to non-CFP bowls, the Big Ten has snagged wins in four out of five matchups. This league is legit. The Big Ten’s strength showed in the expanded CFP format too, sending four teams to the playoff in 2024, the first year of the 12-team setup. Last season, 2025, they followed it up with three teams in the playoff, with Indiana and Ohio State earning critical first-round byes as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively. Plus, both Indiana, who went on to win it all, and the Oregon Ducks made it to the semifinal round. Before 2023, a Big Ten team hadn’t won a national championship since Meyer’s Ohio State squad did it in 2014, so this recent run is an incredible turnaround.
Draft Dominance And A New Era of Talent
The shift isn’t only happening on the field; it’s spilling over into the NFL Draft in a big way. Meyer pointed out that the SEC had long dominated the draft, but that’s not the case anymore. Last year, the Big Ten actually had more first-round picks than the SEC! This league is churning out top-tier talent like never before. Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza made history when the Las Vegas Raiders selected him with the No. 1 overall pick, the first time a Big Ten player went first since Michigan’s Jake Long in 2008. But it didn’t stop there. Four of the top-10 selections in that draft were Big Ten studs: Mendoza, Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate at No. 4, and Ohio State linebackers Arvell Reese at No. 5 and Sonny Styles at No. 7. That kind of top-heavy draft performance speaks volumes.
Meyer knows what he’s talking about. He coached at Florida from 2005-10, going 65-15 with two SEC titles and two national championships. At Ohio State from 2012-18, his Buckeyes were an insane 83-9, winning at least 10 games every single season. When a coach with that kind of resume makes a call, you listen. And his call is that the Big Ten Conference is the strongest in college football. Entering Week 1 of the 2026 season, the AP Top 25 agrees, with three Big Ten teams in the Top 10: Ohio State at No. 1, Oregon at No. 2, and Indiana at No. 6. Eight Big Ten teams overall are ranked in the Top 25, including USC, Michigan, Washington, Penn State, and Iowa. Can the Big Ten keep this insane momentum rolling and cement their status as the absolute king of college football this year? We’ll be watching every single snap.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Fox Sports.
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