The SEC Continues To Embarrass Itself With Comments About The Big Ten

The SEC was rightfully heralded as the best conference in college football for nearly two straight decades, dominating much of the sport from the mid-2000s until the late 2010s.

But things have changed. The sport is different. The Big Ten has serious money to throw around. The Midwestern conference, which has added programs like Oregon and USC, too, has won the past three College Football Playoff national championships (Michigan in '23, Ohio State in '24 and Indiana in '25).

The SEC, though, can't seem to accept that they have been surpassed by the Big Ten.

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin suggested that it's just the top handful of teams in the Big Ten that can compete with the top of the SEC. Meanwhile, the SEC is so good that it just beats itself up over the course of a season.

"There's a lot (that goes) into that. I think it's set up in a good way for the top-heavy teams there right now. And it's going to get better," Kiffin said on 'Pardon My Take.' "We're going to nine games, and our bottom is harder than theirs. And our bottom stadiums are harder (to play in) than theirs. So we're going to beat each other up more, and they're going to sit up there and have 2-3 hard games a year.

"So, their top teams and our top teams, when they go to the Playoffs, they're in better shape. And that stuff matters."

"That (Big Ten) schedule where half your games you don't have to get up for, … many of your good players are out by the fourth quarter, so your play count at the end of the year is less," Kiffin concluded. "One of the really good teams there rested their good players in conference games at the end of the year."

The SEC continues to be the King of Excuses.

When do games matter, exactly? The postseason is what counts, like it or not. Kiffin's comments would be like Dallas Cowboys fans suggesting that their playoff failures don't matter because they play in the NFC East, compared to a team in the NFC North or NFC South.

Kiffin, of course, isn't the only one making this excuse. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has also suggested that the SEC is better top to bottom.

"The other theory is, this is the one that nobody likes to hear, and a lot of SEC coaches are saying this in our meetings, they say ‘They don't have the grind that we do,'" Smart says. "Three of their nine games are hard, but their bottom four games are not our bottom four games. I'm going to play in Starkville and Vanderbilt in my bottom four, and I'm holding onto my butt."

College football media is calling out the SEC

College football media members are calling out the SEC.

"When the SEC was winning titles, it was because the tough schedule prepared them. When the SEC isn't winning titles, it's because the schedule is too tough. Don't bother with this," one wrote.

"Counterpoint: the Big Ten is 8-2 against the SEC in bowl games during the last two years. The propaganda doesn't match up with the recent stats," another added.

"We keep hearing the same recycled talking points about how much tougher the bottom of the SEC is after the SEC got their doors blown off by Big Ten teams in the bowl season. It's so wild to me," Ari Wasserman shared.

Unsurprisingly, some of the SEC's voices in the media are parroting Kiffin's point.

The SEC can make all kinds of excuses, though. The Big Ten can fall back on the three straight national titles the league has won.

Copyright The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 5:36 PM.