Throughout the past decades of College Football, the SEC has ruled the sport and it hasn't even been close. The SEC has dominated the 2000's winning National Championship after National Championship becoming the pinnacle of the sport. As of late, the Big Ten has had their day in the sun winning back to back National Championships.
As the College Football Playoff might expand, each conference is jockeying to prove that they're the best conference in the Country but, it's clear who's still at the top. While the Big Ten and the ACC both had the chance at their respective media days to reinforce how great they are, they spent the entire week talking about another conference.
The Big Ten and ACC have an obsession with the SEC
During the Big Ten and ACC Media Days, all the two conferences could talk about was the big, bad SEC as if the conference is the boogeyman. Each of the biggest storylines to come out of the two conferences media days came when their coaches were talking about the SEC.
Curt Cignetti was asked about why Indiana cancelled their game against Virginia and rather than give the real answer on how the move was made to give the Hoosiers an extra home game driving revenue, he made the moment about the SEC.
"We figure we'd adopt an SEC scheduling philosophy."Curt Cignetti
When Rhett Lashlee took the stage at ACC Media Days, the main takeaway wasn't about how the Mustangs went to the Conference Championship and the Playoff in their first season in the ACC. Lashlee decided to call out the SEC's depth in comparison to the ACC bringing up National Championships.
"The SEC has had the same six schools win the championship since 1964. Not a single one has been different since 1964. That’s top-heavy to me. That’s not depth."Rhett Lashlee
What Rhett Lashlee didn't realize is the fact that his point about the SEC actually makes the ACC look worse. The SEC has had 6 schools win a total of 30 National Championships since 1964 while the ACC has 6 schools claiming National Championships which is giving Syracuse credit for claiming the 1967 Litkenhous National Championship.
The other big storyline out of the ACC Kickoff came from the North Carolina Tar Heels and it wasn't regarding their hiring of Bill Belichick. While the conference was vouching for itself as one of the best conferences in the sport, the Tar Heels desire to join the SEC was revealed proving once again that ACC schools would much rather leave the conference to join a better league.
REPORT: North Carolina is exploring a potential move from the ACC to the SEC, per @InsideCarolina😮https://t.co/acGuw7hhUY pic.twitter.com/MbwyHGqxJK
— On3 (@On3sports) July 24, 2025
The driving force behind all of the tension between the SEC, Big Ten, and ACC has been about which way the College Football Playoff should fall. The Big Ten wants the SEC to move to a Conference schedule with 9 games rather than 8. Tony Pettiti's reasoning for wanting the SEC to move their scheduling format is because he wants "great" 6-3 teams to have a chance at the College Football Playoff.
Punxsutawney Petitti finally emerged from his lair & saw his shadow, meaning 6 more weeks (or longer) of uncertainty about College Football Playoff. Big Ten commish wants auto qualifiers & "great" 6-3 league teams in playoff. Play-in games have little to do w/rewarding good…
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 24, 2025
The "great" teams don't go 6-3 in Conference Play, the great teams post unbeaten seasons in league play or only lose one game but, there's never been a truly great team that went 6-3 in league play.
At the end of the day, the Big Ten and ACC can get up on stage and declare that they're the best conference in the sport or that they're on the same level but, the best way to show that wouldn't be by Non-Stop bringing up the SEC. Every time the two conferences bring up the SEC it just comes across as them looking to put themselves in the same conversation rather than letting the play on the field determine that.
When people ask why the SEC is the best conference over the Big Ten, the answer will continue to be the SEC as the Big Ten is constantly trying to prove they're better than it.