Big Ten took championship belt from SEC. Is TV ratings war next?

There’s no escaping it now. The Big Ten just dusted off the last excuse the SEC had over all of college football. 

No one plays the schedule we play!

What if I were to tell you Ohio State in 2026 will play seven of the top nine Big Ten teams from the 2025 final standings? A schedule so daunting, it would be like Georgia playing Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and LSU in 2026.

Of course, that’s not happening. Now is it, Mr. And Mrs. SEC?

Georgia in 2026 does play Alabama, Oklahoma, Ole Miss and … that’s where the heavy lifting ends. 

Meanwhile, Ohio State plays Indiana, Oregon, USC, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. And for slips and giggles, the Buckeyes play at Texas, too.

And before SEC wonks begin to pop off about Iowa, that’s the same Iowa team that pounded full-strength Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl. The same Vandy that the good folks in the Birmingham, Ala., SEC home offices pushed for the College Football Playoff. 

Before Joe SEC starts screaming about Illinois, it’s the same Illinois that beat full-strength Tennessee in the bowl season. The same Illinois that a year earlier beat South Carolina in the postseason, the same South Carolina the SEC office was pushing for the CFP. 

The last time USC played an SEC team, it dusted off both LSU and Texas A&M in 2024.  

Michigan officially sent Nick Saban packing a couple of years ago, and Indiana sent everyone home — including that suddenly stale program in Tuscaloosa. By 35 points.

And now there’s nowhere to hide for the big, bad SEC. The championships have dried up, and so have the excuses.

The once unassailable metric of conference schedule difficulty is no more. The only reason it was an unapproachable given for the SEC was postseason dominance.

They won national titles, they won big bowl games. 

Not anymore. 

Michigan beat Alabama on the way to the 2023 national title, Ohio State beat the ever-loving Iamaleava out of Tennessee in the 2024 CFP, and beat SEC newbie Texas on the way to the Big Ten’s second straight national title. 

Then came Indiana. I mean, Indiana, people.   

When Indiana does what it did to Alabama on the way to the Big Ten’s third straight national title, when the SEC’s collective drawers are pulled down during the Grandaddy Rose Bowl and the conference is summarily spanked for all to see, it’s time to reassess that whole we’re the SEC and you’re not schtick. 

When Georgia can’t get out of the quarterfinals for the second straight CFP, when Texas A&M reverts to Texas 8&5 in the first round of the CFP after a gift conference schedule paved the way to a home game at the party, when LSU can’t get out of its own way without spending a(nother) hundred million to start over, it might be time to take a long, hard look at SEC slippage. 

Then late last week, still fresh from the Crimson and Cream glow emanating from Bloomington, Ind., the Big Ten leaped off the top ring rope: the release of the 2026 schedule. 

Nearly every can’t-miss game of the 2026 college football season will be a Big Ten production.

Ohio State plays at Indiana and USC, and gets Michigan and Oregon at home. 

Indiana plays Ohio State and USC at home, and at Michigan and Washington. 

Oregon plays at Ohio State and USC, and gets Michigan and Washington at home. 

That’s 12 legit marquee games, and there’s more meat on the Big Ten scheduling bone. More opportunity to deliver the final blow to the SEC: television ratings. 

While SEC games still outpaced most Big Ten games in television ratings for 2025, there’s plenty of uncertainty in the SEC with the new nine-game league schedule. What worked forever, in some cases, is no more. 

Georgia doesn’t play Texas A&M again (seriously, it must be a joke at this point), and someone decided it was more important for Tennessee to continue to play Kentucky instead of Florida. A Florida-Tennessee game that, more than any other, helped elevate the conference past the Big Ten in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Florida was in the middle of its worst season in years in 2025, and had fired its coach. Tennessee was in the middle of significant regression from its CFP season of 2024. 

And the game still got 4.76 million viewers — more on the same day than one of the greatest rivalries in college football history (USC vs. Notre Dame, 4.64).

Georgia vs. Tennessee, another longstanding rivalry eliminated on an annual basis by the new nine-game schedule, had a whopping 12.58 million viewers last season. I’m sure the Georgia-Arkansas game will crush in 2026. 

No Alabama-LSU (7.54 million), no Florida-LSU (7.64 million). Just a whole lot of trying to be everything for everyone, and being nothing of what it needs to be.

The championships have dried up, and so have the excuses. There’s nowhere to hide for the SEC. 

It’s a Big Ten world now.