Radio personality Colin Cowherd Jerry Lai-Imagn Images

Colin Cowherd boldly names college football’s best conference before 2025 season

Originally posted on NIL on SI | By JC Shelton | Last updated Jul 21, 2025 6:45 PM ET

After securing back-to-back national championships, Colin Cowherd believes the Big Ten's string of success in college football is here to stay

The Fox Sports broadcaster dove into his predictions for the 2025 season, calling for Penn State to face Texas in the College Football Playoff national championship.

Ohio State took over the mantel in 2024 with their second national title since 2014 after rival Michigan went undefeated the previous year, marking the Big Ten's first national championship since the Buckeyes accomplished the feat nearly a decade earlier.

Despite the SEC winning 13 of the last 19 national titles, including four straight from 2019-2022, Cowherd thinks the Big Ten has already surpassed the rival conference given their talent acquisition in the Name, Image and Likeness era.

"This is one of those things, and it’s going to be hard to stomach for a lot of people, the Big Ten is officially better than the SEC," he said on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd. "It’s not just that Ohio State won the national championship last year, it’s that they humiliated Tennessee and dominated Texas."

The Buckeyes, holding regular season losses to Oregon and Michigan, took down the SEC's Tennessee and Texas by 25 points and 14 points, respectively, in the playoffs.

"It looks a lot like it did eight years ago when a Georgia or an Alabama would face a Big Ten team," Cowherd said.

"What’s changing is money," he continued. "Big Ten schools are bigger, they have more graduates. It’s easier to raise money for NIL. You add in Phil Knight and the Nike money. You add in USC and the LA economy money… Big Ten money is Hollywood, tech, and financial centers. There's a lot of car dealerships in the SEC."

A poll done by On3 revealed that four of the top seven NIL spenders come from the Big Ten, with the SEC holding two of the top seven. The update comes on the heels of the revenue-share model, in which schools can allocate up to $20.5 million directly to athletes on top of what is raised from collective backing.

Only time will tell if Cowherd's claim will hold true. The SEC has had a stranglehold on college football for the better part of the last 20 years, and the Big Ten has significant ground to make up to take over that mantel.