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Urban Meyer Makes Pick Between Big Ten, SEC In 2025

Originally posted on The Spun | By Andrew Gould | Last updated May 18, 2025 11:52 AM ET

Urban Meyer has reached the promised land as an SEC and Big Ten head coach. The analyst now believes we're witnessing a new power hierarchy atop college football.

A decade after Meyer led Ohio State to a national title, his former employer handily defeated Tennessee and Texas en route to another championship. While the Buckeyes gave the Big Ten its second straight champion, the SEC didn't send anyone to the National Title Game in either year.

Has the Big Ten surpassed the SEC? While it may not be a more prolific conference from top to bottom, Meyer believes the Big Ten's prestige programs now lead the charge.

"You know what the SEC's done? It's raised the level," Meyer said on Another Dooley Noted Podcast (h/t On3). "But the Big Ten has passed the SEC at the upper part. If you would have told me that 10 years ago, I would've said it's not even close. Because it's not."

Meyer has made this claim before. During the College Football Playoff, he called the SEC's reign of dominance "over" after watching Tennessee and Georgia each get eliminated in their first game.

That was before Meyer's Buckeyes defeated the Longhorns, the last SEC team standing in the CFP, and gave the Big Ten back-to-back national champions with a title win over the independent Notre Dame.

"The upper echelon Big Ten Conference schools have really jumped on — as far as recruiting — you saw the Wolverines last year were one of the most dominant programs of the last decade," Meyer said in January. "The Buckeyes right now have the best roster -- I don't think it's close -- in college football. You got Penn State that's really put together a hell of a team. And then you have Illinois beating South Carolina. Think about that."

Meyer started a streak of seven straight SEC national champions when leading Florida to the first of two titles in 2006. Following Meyer's last title with Ohio State in 2014, seven of the next eight national champions hailed from the SEC.

Yet the SEC's grip over the title picture could be dwindling. Ohio State, Penn State, and Oregon enter the 2025 season as top contenders that could keep the Big Ten standing tall.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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