there where the SEC was down, but the proof is in the numbers.


They've owned bowl season. They've owned the national championship going on nearly 20 years now. They put by far the most number of players into the NFL.

They do this because they have the most support. Nearly every school has a stadium of 70K+, and they fill them.

Can you cherry pick a Texas or OU who made sure to play each other every single year plus supplemented their OOC just to catch up to an SEC schedule? Sure. Good for them. Doesn't change the fact that all they did was catch up to an SEC schedule.


Do tOSU, Michigan (don't get me started on B1G schools and their outrageously pathetic OOC schedules), SoCal, Texas, OU, and other blue chip schools compete with the SEC? Of course. No doubt. They also have 70K+ stadiums that they fill as an indication of the financial support they receive from their fans.

The difference is that while tOSU is playing Purdue, Georgia is playing South Carolina. Every conference out there not named the SEC has lower G5 quality teams in it. tOSU gets all the cupcakes they could ever want right in the conference.


ACC - BC, Cal, GT, NC State, UNC, Pitt, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia, VT, and WF. None of these teams strike any fear on an average yearly basis.

B1G - Illinois, Indiana (normally, this year is an exception to the rule), Maryland, Michigan St, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA


I'm not sure where things are going to shake out on a yearly basis for the B12, but Houston, UCF, ISU, Kansas, ASU, Zona, TT, Baylor, and Cincinnati all do not have a history of being consistently good. No idea if Colorado is going to be a 1-hit-wonder.



But at the end of the day, here's the biggest test: The networks are willing to pay the SEC big money, the biggest in all of college football, for just an 8 game conference schedule. The B1G didn't go to an 8 game schedule only because it put them behind the SEC. The networks pay that big money because the games are good and draw good ratings.