Following Georgia’s Sugar Bowl loss to Notre Dame, many college football experts are claiming that the SEC is no longer the best conference in the nation.
“The SEC is a great conference…the narrative that they are CLEARLY the best and deserve every benefit of the doubt needs to die,” said Fox Sports college football expert Joel Klatt via social media after the Sugar Bowl.
We have to disagree with this point. Yes, the SEC is in the middle of a couple of down years. Last season, the national championship did not feature a single SEC team for the first time since 2014.
“Is the SEC run over? It is,” said former Ohio State and Florida coach Urban Meyer recently. “The Big Ten has passed them (the SEC) for 2023 and 2024.”
Meyer’s argument is more valid. The Big Ten appears to have the national championship winner in two straight seasons.
This year, we would be surprised if Ohio State does not beat Texas to advance to (and win) the national title and eliminate the final remaining SEC team. Ohio State looks like the best time in the country.
Despite a few recent hiccups, the SEC is still the top conference in college football and it isn’t close.
So why is the SEC still easily the best conference in the country?
Most NFL draft picks
The SEC has had the most players selected in the NFL draft for 18 straight seasons and that’s not going to change in the 2025 NFL draft. NFL teams are looking for the best players and if general managers miss on their draft picks, then they are often fired.
The NFL trusts SEC players more than those from any other conference. If the SEC were close to other conferences, then it would not have an 18 year NFL draft streak.
Most recent national championships
The SEC has won six of the 10 national championships during the College Football Playoff era. The Big Ten and ACC (two national titles each) are the only other conferences to win during this span.
Overall, the SEC has won 14 of the last 19 national championships. During that time frame, the ACC has won three national championships, the Big Ten has won two titles, and the Big 12 and Pac-10 combined for zero titles. The national championships discussion isn’t close either.
Best recruiting
The SEC brings in the most talent of any conference. In fact, the SEC signed eight of the top 11 recruiting classes in the nation in the 2025 cycle.
An SEC has signed the top recruiting class for 17 straight years according to 247Sports. Miami (2008) was the last non-SEC school to sign a No. 1 class (we had to go to ESPN because 247Sports’ database did not go that far back). Again, if it were close, then an SEC team would not secure the best recruiting class every year.
When the SEC falters in recruiting, the NFL draft race, and the national championship race, then it may be time to consider the Big Ten as keeping up with the SEC, but until then I’m not buying that the Big Ten has surpassed the SEC.
