For the first time since 1942 (Minnesota in 1940, 1941, and Ohio State in 1942), the Big Ten has won three straight National Championships. Michigan in 2023, Ohio State in 2024, and Indiana most recently in 2025. Before these three years, the SEC had won four straight seasons and thirteen times since 2006 when Florida beat Ohio State to spring the SEC dominance. No longer is the SEC the best conference in College Football. The Big Ten has stolen the crown from the SEC.
The SEC's not winning National Titles started when NIL and the transfer portal became legal in the sport. No longer could SEC teams stack rosters with their backups to sit and wait to play. Now those backups are entering the transfer portal and playing all over the country.
Even when their rosters are still stacked with top prospects, they are not guaranteed a National Title. Georgia's starters this past season were 90% players that Head Coach Kirby Smart recruited. Compare that to Indiana, and you only have 35% of players who were recruited as starters. So 65% of Cignetti’s starters were through the transfer portal. Indiana’s head coach, Curt Cignetti, found a successful way to pick and develop players.
The other part of the championship formula for the last three National Championship teams was experience. Indiana’s 22 starters, 11 were 4th or 5th year Seniors. Then you had multiple Junior Starters. You had a team that was mostly composed of upperclassmen who had played for several years. You also had a ton of players following Cignetti from James Madison. Then you add in the fact that quarterback Fernando Mendoza was a three-year starter who transferred in. Both Michigan and Ohio State followed that formula as well.
The other part of the equation is NIL. Big Ten schools have large alumni bases that have many big donors. In the SEC, money has always been good, but most Colleges are in rural areas in the South. NIL has let the Big Ten compete and win recruiting battles. No longer do SEC teams have a competitive balance in terms of roster management.
The other sign of dominance for the Big Ten is its bowl record. They went 11-5 in bowl games, compared to the SEC that went a putrid 4-10. This included the SEC going 0-3 against Big Ten teams in Bowl Games. So, the SEC is no longer winning National Championships or dominating the Big Ten. The crown of the best conference is now the Big Ten.