Former Ohio State and Florida coach Urban Meyer believes the Big Ten has closed the gap with the SEC in a major way.
The Big Ten either matches the SEC now or it’s extremely close, Meyer said on “The Script” podcast.
Meyer has watched the conference transform over the past decade. That wasn’t the case during most of his coaching career.
“I don’t believe the Big Ten was very serious back in 2012. I don’t think the opponents’ stadiums were very serious. I don’t think the recruiting was very serious. You know, I thought the Big Ten conference was OK, but then they’d go get their [expletive] kicked in the bowl games. And I saw it, I came from the SEC, and I was like, ‘What are we doing?’ You know, you go into these stadiums, and they’re not hard to play in.”
The shift started when the conference decided to prioritize football a few years later.
“Other teams in that conference got real serious.”
Meyer pointed to Penn State and Michigan as examples.
Then programs like Indiana and Illinois stepped up. The Hoosiers reached the College Football Playoff this season. The Fighting Illini have become bowl winners under Bret Bielema.
“You go in there now with Big Noon, and some of these environments are fantastic. Go ask how the [Indiana Hoosiers] boys are doing in Bloomington, Indiana. They got real serious about the game of football. Illinois, they got real serious. They hired the right guy [Bret Bielema]. They got really good players and they’re beating SEC teams in a bowl game.”
Illinois has won back-to-back bowl games against South Carolina and Tennessee. Bielema has turned the program from irrelevance into a contender since arriving in 2021.
Meyer credits administrators and athletic directors for the conference’s rise.
“I think the Big Ten, and there’s a lot of credit to go around to the ADs, the administrators, etc., the Big Ten got real serious about the game of football.”
The change has made college football more unpredictable and exciting, Meyer said.
