Big Ten coaches and their critics have become a familiar summer pairing, and Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz added his name to the list on Monday with a swipe at the conference’s non-conference scheduling.
Drinkwitz was asked what he thought has fueled the Big Ten’s recent run of national titles, and he pointed straight at the league’s lighter early-season slate. “ When you don’t play a (non-conference) A4 game,” Drinkwitz said.
That answer landed with a thud, mostly because the Big Ten’s postseason success has come after the games that actually matter. Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana have won the last three national titles in college football, and with Indiana and Ohio State reloading and Oregon looming, a fourth straight title for the conference is hardly out of the question.
It’s true that Big Ten schedules often feature plenty of non-conference games that won’t scare anybody in a Power 4 league. Nebraska, for example, is set to play Ohio, Bowling Green and North Dakota this season. But that doesn’t explain what happens once the playoff starts.
Indiana’s title run last year came with a 38-3 win over Alabama, a 56-22 win over Oregon and a 27-21 win over Miami in the championship game. Before that, the Hoosiers beat Ohio State in the Big Ten title game to earn a first-round bye.
Ohio State followed in 2024 by beating Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame on the way to the title. The Buckeyes went 2-0 against the SEC in the College Football Playoff, and that had nothing to do with the fact that their first three games months earlier were soft.
The irony is hard to miss. Drinkwitz is coming from the SEC, the conference that until this year made a habit of scheduling an FCS opponent near the end of the season to give teams a breather before the stretch run and, if they got there, the playoff.
Missouri hasn’t exactly been lining up a brutal non-conference gauntlet, either. The Tigers’ 2025 slate includes Central Arkansas, Kansas and Louisiana, and this year it’s Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Kansas and Troy. Kansas is there because of the long-running Big 12 rivalry, but the rest of it hardly screams danger.
Big Ten programs have basically admitted the easier early schedule exists because the league is already so demanding. That’s part of why USC ended one of college football’s most historic rivalries in order to play San Jose State.
Drinkwitz would have more of a case if he were talking about getting into the College Football Playoff. Once Big Ten teams are in, though, they’re not lining up against FCS teams.
There’s also the backdrop of a summer that has already seen other coaches take shots at the league. Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi did it last week by suggesting the ACC has had plenty of success against the Big Ten, even though Nebraska actually has a winning record against those teams. Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti also isn’t exactly making friends right now.
So between Narduzzi’s comments and Drinkwitz’s latest explanation, the Big Ten has become a convenient target. Even Nebraska fans, of all people, are pointing and laughing.
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For Nebraska, the comment is more than just another round of conference chatter because the Cornhuskers live in that same scheduling world and have to navigate it every fall. The bigger issue is whether the Big Tens postseason results really support Drinkwitzs theory, especially when recent title runs have come with plenty of wins over top opponents and when other leagues, including the SEC, have also leaned on lighter non-conference setups of their own. [Read more 🡒]