The Big Ten finally figured out how to win National Championships on a consistent basis after decades of dominance by the SEC. For three years now it has been a Big Ten team hoisting the National Championship trophy, and that has led everyone in the SEC to look inward to try and figure out what changed.
Kirby Smart recently shared why he thinks the Big Ten has been so dominant the last three years, and Lane Kiffin recently decided to weigh in as well. And it turns out the two head coaches both agree that the Big Ten's schedule gives them an inherent advantage over the SEC when it comes time for the playoff.
Lane Kiffin explains the difference in SEC and Big ten scheduling and why the Big ten has an advantage in the post season pic.twitter.com/cieMd3zCIq
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) May 20, 2026
Lane Kiffin and Kirby Smart join forces to explain the Big Ten's recent run of dominance
So what is this advantage the Big Ten has over the SEC? Both Kiffin and Smart agree that the best teams in the Big Ten and the best teams in the SEC are fairly equal. The teams at the bottom of the standings (they believe) are not equal though.
Both Kiffin and Smart believe that the worst teams in the SEC are far better than the worst teams in the Big Ten. In the SEC they believe they don't get any weeks off while the best teams in the Big Ten only have to play a couple difficult games every season.
Big Ten fans will be furious after hearing this, but the truth is in the pudding.
At the 2026 NFL Draft this year the SEC had the most players selected for the 20th year in a row. They also had 87 selections which is the most in any one draft from a single conference in the history of the NFL Draft. This beat the record the SEC already set one year earlier as they had 79 selections in the 2025 NFL Draft.
So not only has the SEC dominated the NFL Draft for two decades, they haven't been as talented as they are right now.
Teams like Georgia, Alabama and Texas have the most draft picks in the SEC, but the bottom dwellers also have a few players get drafted each year as well. The bottom dwellers in the Big Ten however sometimes don't even have a single player drafted. So while the top of the Big Ten is equal to the top of the SEC, the two conferences overall aren't even comparable.
Ohio State, Michigan and Oregon get to benefit from these simpler schedules while Georgia, Texas and Alabama get beat up significantly more throughout the season. So when it comes time for the playoff, Smart and Kiffin believe that the Big Ten teams are in much better shape to make a deep run than the SEC teams.
Times are only getting tougher for the SEC compared to the Big Ten
This inherent disadvantage is unfortunately only going to get worse for the SEC. This fall the SEC will play a nine game conference schedule for the first time in their history (excluding the 2020 Covid season), so that just means they have one more game to beat each other up before the playoff.
The Big Ten has been playing nine league games since 2016, so this is nothing new to them. Their schedules have also been much easier compared to the SEC's even before the SEC added a ninth game this year, so that disparity is only going to get bigger.
Will the SEC be able to figure out a way around this to get back on top of the sport? It may seem unlikely based on what Kiffin and Smart are arguing, but at some point their superior talent should win out and the SEC will get back to dominating college football like they always have.
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