Colin Cowherd believes the Big Ten has officially surpassed the SEC.
Cowherd made the argument during his show on Monday afternoon. He cited Ohio State and Michigan’s dominant National Championship runs in each of the past 2 seasons, comparing their performances to SEC programs of yesteryear.
“It looks a lot like it used to 8 years ago when a Georgia or a Bama would face a Big Ten team,” Cowherd said. “And the Big Ten teams really couldn’t generate consistent offense. The defenses, the athletes were just too good.
“Go look at Tennessee against Ohio State’s defense. Go look at Texas against Ohio State’s defense. Go look at Bama the year before against Michigan. I think there’s a reason for it and I never thought this was possible.”
Cowherd believes there’s been a financial shift in the college football landscape when it comes to the power balance between the SEC and the Big Ten.
“What’s changing is money,” Cowherd said. “Big Ten schools are bigger. They have more graduates. It’s easier to raise money for NIL. You add in Phil Knight and the Nike money. You add in USC and the LA economy money. The Big Ten cities are LA, New York with Rutgers, Chicago with Northwestern, Minneapolis, D.C., Seattle.
“Big Ten money is Hollywood, tech and financial centers. There’s a lot of car dealerships in the SEC and car dealerships are running on razor-thin margins.”
Cowherd also cited a recent survey conducted by On3, which reported 4 of the top 8 spenders for 2025 reside in the Big Ten. Only 2 of the top 8 were from the SEC.
“That’s not changing,” Cowherd said.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
