The SEC-Big Ten argument has been raging all summer, and Jordan Rodgers isn’t budging.
On ESPN’s “Get Up,” the former Vanderbilt quarterback and current analyst acknowledged that the Big Ten has owned the most recent stretch of national championships. Even so, he still put the SEC at the top of college football’s conference hierarchy heading into the 2026 season.
"This conversation gets convoluted because the Big Ten has had the most success recently with national championships, no doubt," Rodgers said. "The best league, to me, you have to look at who's the deepest, who has the most talent, who has the most teams that can actually compete for a national championship, and that's still the SEC."
Rodgers’ argument leans heavily on depth and long-term results, not just the latest title count. He pointed to the national championship era as the clearest evidence that the SEC has been the stronger league overall.
"It's easy for the Big Ten to say that now with the last three national championships. The SEC, within the last 20 years, has won 13 national championships with five different teams," Rodgers said.
"So history tells us that the SEC is still the deepest; they still have the most talent. I think there's five rosters in the SEC that can compete for a national championship, and I don't think you can say that past three in the Big Ten."
The two leagues don’t get many chances to settle things on the field. Most SEC-Big Ten matchups come in the postseason, and even those results can be hard to read because of opt-outs.
Over the last three seasons, the Big Ten’s national champions have faced only four SEC teams in the College Football Playoff. Ohio State played two SEC opponents on its 2025 title run, while Michigan and Indiana both beat Alabama on the way to championship victories.
Oregon and Penn State, the other two Big Ten teams in that playoff stretch, have not faced an SEC opponent in at least three seasons. Penn State’s last such meeting was a Peach Bowl loss to Ole Miss three years ago, while Oregon opened Dan Lanning’s tenure with a 49-3 loss to Georgia.
Rodgers also noted that bowl results can get muddy when players sit out. He cited Iowa’s win over Vanderbilt in the 2025 Outback Bowl and Illinois’ win over South Carolina in the 2024 Citrus Bowl as results worth considering, but said Missouri’s win over Ohio State in the 2023 Cotton Bowl feels less meaningful because of opt-outs.
For a better read on the debate, the regular season will offer a few more direct tests. There are three Big Ten-SEC matchups in the second week of the 2026 season: Ohio State at Texas, Oklahoma at Michigan and Mississippi State at Minnesota. The first two will feature teams expected to sit near the top of their conferences, while the third could be the clearest gauge of overall league depth.
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