Matt Campbell has never coached in the Big Ten, but the Ohio native grew up in Big Ten country. At his first conference media days appearance on Tuesday, he fit right in and toed the company line, proclaiming, “I think it's proven in the modern era of the Big Ten and college football, this conference is the best in the country."
" I think it's proven in the modern era of the Big Ten and college football, this conference is the best in the country."
— Joel Haas (@Joel_Haas1) July 28, 2026
- Matt Campbell at Big Ten Media Days
The SEC had an unconquested claim to that title for much of this century, bolstered by winning six of eight national championships between Ohio State’s win in 2014 and Michigan’s in 2023. Michigan, Ohio State, and Indiana winning it all in consecutive years has swung the pendulum towards the Big Ten, and Campbell, and more boisterously, Bret Bielema, echoed that growing sentiment on Tuesday.
Matt Campbell is right in declaring the Big Ten the best conference in the country
Bielema went so far as to take a shot at the SEC, saying, “they want to live in 2005 forever.” Ironically, Texas won the title in 2005 as a member of the Big 12, but Bielema’s point is that the SEC dominated before the NIL and transfer portal era arrived, so there’s generally been more pushback against the two forces that have re-balanced the sport by the programs that were hoarding all of the talent for so long.
I’m not typically one to turn to a comedian for college football insights, but Shane Gillis summed it up well on College Gameday during the 2024 College Football Playoff when he said, “Now that everybody can pay their players, Notre Dame has a shot. It’s not just the SEC. It’s not Coach Saban.”
The best jokes are rooted in at least a kernel of truth, and that’s why Gillis’s line struck such a nerve with Saban. It’s also why he decided to hang it up and retire after the 2023 CFP. That’s not to say the SEC was the only league illegally paying players before the advent of NIL. But I don’t think it’s going out on a limb to say it was the most aggressive in its efforts to do so.
That’s further evidenced by the fact that since the advent of NIL and the portal, talent has flowed out of those SEC programs like Alabama and Georgia that were hoarding talent stockpiled by elite recruiting head coaches and leveled off the top of the sport.
It’s only been three years with the Big Ten on top. Some things can be statistical anomalies, and that could be what the SEC missing the national championship in all three of those years is. However, even entering 2026, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Oregon all have better odds to win the national championship than the SEC’s top two teams, Texas and Georgia.
The Big Ten has done a better job of creating the top-flight contenders in this era of football, and if you have the most championship contenders, it’s hard to argue you’re not the best league.
Sure, the SEC will make the “deepest conference” argument, and it is. Even if the league’s middle-class is routinely over-inflated by the rankings, there is a bigger bottom in the Big Ten that doesn’t quite exist in the SEC. But it’s marginal, and offset by the Big Ten winning three straight national championships.
The SEC will be up in arms, more about Bielema’s comments than Campbell’s. But Campbell has officially joined the fight between the sport’s two super conferences.
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