Has The Large Ten Overtaken The SEC as The Most Dominant Faculty Soccer Convention?

Could the tide be turning soon on the SEC’s decades-long dominance in college football? 

It’s a no-brainer, if you ask FOX Sports’s Colin Cowherd, who is convinced that the past two national champions — which were won by Michigan and Ohio State, respectively — are indicative of a power shift in the Big Ten’s favor.

Cowherd took a step further, stating that the Big Ten is now the premier college football conference headed into 2025.

“The best offensive player (Jeremiah Smith) in college football is a Buckeye,” he said on Monday’s edition of “The Herd.” “The best defensive player, Caleb Downs, is a Buckeye. Their recruiting, once again, was through the roof. Their NIL money is through the roof. … This is gonna be hard to stomach for a lot of people. The Big Ten is officially better than the SEC. It’s not just that Ohio State won the [national championship] final 12 months, it is that they humiliated Tennessee and dominated Texas. Texas scored 14 factors. They’d scored over 14 factors in 32 straight video games within the SEC. … The 12 months earlier than, Alabama performed Michigan when Michigan received the [national championship]. Alabama could not transfer the ball. They barely had 100 yards passing.

“It seems so much prefer it used to eight years in the past when a Georgia [team] or a Bama [team] would face a Large Ten group, and the Large Ten groups could not actually generate constant offense. The defenses, the athletes have been simply too good.”

With an expanded convention, the Large Ten convention now contains 18 groups, with the latest additions being Oregon, USC, UCLA and Washington — all of which formally joined the convention in 2024.

In its first 12 months within the Large Ten, Oregon capped off an ideal 13-0 common season by taking down Penn State within the 2024 Large Ten Soccer Championship Recreation. Oregon earned a first-round bye within the newly formatted CFP, whereas two different Large Ten groups ready for his or her first-round video games. In these matchups, Penn State simply dealt with ACC hopeful SMU, 38-10, and Ohio State, coming off an upset by unranked rival Michigan, routed SEC powerhouse Tennessee, 42-17. 

“One thing’s altering, and what’s altering is cash,” Cowherd added. “Large Ten faculties are larger. They’ve extra graduates. It is simpler to lift cash for NIL. You add in (Oregon alum) Phil Knight and the Nike cash. You add in USC and the LA economic system cash. The Large Ten cities — LA, New York with Rutgers, Chicago [with] Northwestern, Minneapolis, D.C., Seattle — Large Ten cash is Hollywood, tech, and monetary facilities.

At present, 4 of the highest seven spenders in faculty soccer are Large Ten groups, in keeping with On3. Ohio State, which had the most costly roster ($20 million) final 12 months, checks in at No. 3 on this 12 months’s checklist, behind solely Texas and Texas Tech. Three different Large Ten faculties are shut behind, with Oregon at No. 4, and Michigan and USC tied at No. 7.

Lately, there was a whole lot of dialogue surrounding the CFP format, which can virtually actually increase once more in 2026, going from a 12-team format to a 14- or 16-team format. The Large Ten’s favored 4+4+2+2+1+3 plan, which might earmark 13 of 16 spots as automated bids preassigned to conferences, was just lately squashed by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey final week at his convention’s media days, in keeping with USA At the moment. To increase the CFP in 2026, the SEC and the Large Ten would want to align behind a plan by Dec. 1. The 12-team CFP stays in place for the 2025 season.

[MORE: How 2024-25 CFP Would’ve Looked Under Proposed Expansion Formats]

To kick off the 2025-26 season, Ohio State is ready to host Texas in a rematch of the Cotton Bowl in Week 1 (Aug. 30 at midday ET on FOX and the FOX Sports activities app), and the Buckeyes are slight favorites over the Longhorns.

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