Top conference in college football: Big Ten or SEC?

Colin Cowherd made a bold statement on "The Herd" that the Big Ten is overtaking the SEC as the dominant college football conference.

"The Big Ten is officially better than the SEC. It's not just that Ohio State won the natty last year, it's that they humiliated Texas," Cowherd said. ". . . Something is changing and what's changing is money. Big Ten schools are bigger, they have more graduates, [and] it's easier to raise money for NIL."

The top 10 highest spenders in college football for 2025-26 are Texas, Texas Tech, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas A&M, Miami, USC, Michigan, Tennessee, and Auburn. The SEC (Texas, Texas A&M, Tennessee, and Auburn) and Big Ten (Ohio State, Oregon, USC, and Michigan) take up eight of those spots.

Cowherd isn't wrong about the Big Ten drawing in more money over the years and building better programs that can compete with the SEC. In the 2024-25 Bowl Games and College Football Playoffs, the Big Ten went 5-1 against SEC teams. USC beat Texas A&M, Michigan beat Alabama, Illinois beat South Carolina, Ohio State beat Tennessee, Ohio State beat Texas, and Missouri beat Iowa (the only winning SEC school against the Big Ten in the postseason).

People's main issue with Cowherd's statement that the Big Ten is officially better than the SEC is that the top teams of the Big Ten, specifically the Buckeyes, can't define an entire conference. Yes, those top teams can compete with top SEC teams (and beat them), but those teams don't speak for the entire Big Ten.

However, that doesn't mean the Big Ten isn't trending in the direction to overpower the SEC in the near future due to NIL and overall success. Penn State, that isn't even in the top 10 of highest spenders this coming season, is a favorite to win the CFP championship. While the Nittany Lions, like Ohio State, can't speak for the entire conference, other Big Ten teams can also start slowly building their programs with money and talent.

"Penn State will just look different. [It'll] look like an SEC offense and defense six years ago," Cowherd said. ". . . Every national champion in the college football era has been ranked inside of the preseason top six. So, the Ohio State, Penn State, [and] Oregon are all in the top six this year and that's where the national champions come from."

Cowherd already has the Nittany Lions winning the national title. On top of that, he has them beating the Longhorns in the final. It's a huge statement to say the Big Ten is the No. 1 conference in college football. If Penn State wins the championship over an SEC team or beats out SEC teams along the way, it certainly does help Cowherd's claim, but the Big Ten needs more variety in terms of talent across the 18 teams to officially say that the SEC is losing its stamina against its fellow Power Two conference.