Debating ACC vs. SEC vs. Big 10: College Football Rivalries
Debate over college football escalates, focusing on the SEC & Big Ten attendance, schedules, and performance. How does the ACC measure up to these conferences?
Video Transcript
We were sitting there and you're hearing some of the things that are coming out of the ACC of last week.
Pat Narduzzi talking about how the big, the SEC is bigger, better than the Big 10.
ACC is one of the best conferences.
Like, it feels like these are almost just little propaganda weekends now for the conference.
Yeah, in some ways.
And I mean, Pat's off base with that take, but Pat's also an entertainer.
You know?
He, you know, when you can say that the, the ACC is the bigger, better conference than the, the Big 10.
I, I think, to me, you measure a conference in national championships.
And we can talk about attendance or bowl record or non-conference scheduling or nine-game schedules, which the Big 10 has been doing, but, you know, at the end of the day, I think, the Big 10 has the national championships.
And, and like we were talking about earlier this week, if Oregon were to win a national championship and you had four different schools win four, four national titles in four years, I don't know how anybody could dispute that.
I Bobby, I don't know about you, but Eli Drinkwitz was the one that, I was surprised by.
That he started, started taking shots at the Big 10 scheduling model- when yes, it's true, Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan, their non-conference schedules weren't great the last three years, but I, I don't remember anybody from any of those fan bases complaining about it, especially Ohio State and Indiana playing 16 games.
Yeah.
And w- what frustrated me was the fact that you look at Missouri's schedule the past couple years, and they've got Kansas, I think, like some kind of Presbyterian college on the lineups.
Like, if you're gonna be talking about the Big 10 and having all these non-conference games, you gotta have a couple really good ones in your back pocket, and they just didn't have that.
Plus, look at the Big 10.
They're beating all these SEC teams once you get into the playoffs.
So it I understand it.
Whenever you're on top of the mountain, everyone's gonna take a shot at you, but you gotta at least come with a little more information, kinda sound more legit if you're gonna be doing that.
Yeah, I totally agree.
And, and, you know, well, with Missouri, you know, you look at their non-con over the last couple years.
Central Arkansas was on there.
You know, Murray State.
Yes, they played ranked teams like Kansas State and Boston College, but it's not like they have an overwhelming, non-conference schedule, and their SEC schedule the last two years has been a little bit weak.
Now, I did look this up, believe it or not.
I, I was surprised to see that Missouri is 12 and five against the Big 10 since 2000.
So my invitation to Eli Drinkwitz and Missouri is quite easy, you know?
Come play in the Big 10.
Come play some of those Midwest rivals like- Illinois and Iowa every year.
They're in that part of the country anyway.
It'd be a lot of fun to see.
But yeah, you I think Bobby said it best.
It, it is a time where it is propaganda for the conferences, and we're hearing a little bit of that from the SEC this week.
And I'm sure we'll hear it on some level with the Big 10.
What I've found over the years is the Big 10, they find a way to be in lockstep though, right?
Like, I think you'll see, hear the coaches say, whatever message it is, it'll be, parroted in the same way by all 18 coaches on some level.
A- and that's kinda the way, Bill, it felt like the SEC used to be, and now there's some dissension within the ranks.
And, like, they talk about When you, when you hear Greg Sankey come up there, Bill, and talk about like, "We're going back to 1861, and, like, we're gonna secede from the NCAA.
We're gonna start our own conference."
I'm like, "Okay, well, our own deal."
Well, that might be great for football, but, like, football's not the only sport people play.
It's the only one that makes, you know, the revenue that everybody needs.
But I'm thinking, like, if you do that, like, what is there for your baseball?
What is there for softball?
Like, volleyball.
Like, there's all these other sports that need to be fed.
Basketball, women's basketball.
And it, it might be sound good in football if people wanna do this, but there's no way you could just peel that off and everybody's gonna be okay with it.
So it, it, it seems like it's a little bit of saber-rattling to me.
Like, and I can't imagine there's any real legitimacy to it.
No.
And, and I think s- part of it is if they I, What his message is to me, it's less about let's go do a super league and more we kinda wanna make our own rules.
Mm-hmm.
You know?
Like, we wanna make the rules that benefit the SEC.
And, and one of the issues with college football as, as a whole in the Power Four is the ACC, the Big 12, the Big 10, and the Pow- or, who did I miss?
The Big 12, Big 10, A- ACC, and SEC, the four of them are never on the same page.
I mean, it's taken us this long to get to nine conference games, you know?
So who says that the ACC is gonna play by the same rules as the SEC, you know, when it comes to NIL, portal, you know, how you handle even things like the Brendan Forsby case this summer, and I think that's part of it.
But, you know, when they talk about breaking away, I think it's more of a shot at the NCAA to, "Hey, get your act together.
Get some rules in place.
And, you know, let's, let's get this so we're not talking about Wild West and those kind of things that we've been talking about in college football the last few years."
