Well if there’s one thing we can be sure of with the 2026 college football season, it’s that the budding rivalry between the Big Ten and SEC is only going to get more intense.
At SEC media days recently, several prominent figures spent lengthy press conferences telling anyone who would listen that the SEC deserves all 16 teams in the College Football Playoff. In fact, maybe they’d consider inducting an honorary 17th member if necessary, just to ensure a fair assessment of strength of schedule.
Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian and Greg Sankey all were at the very top of their high horses, explaining that SEC teams are automatically superior, even if they lose more games and play poorly against bad teams, and that the College Football Playoff selection committee has not shown the conference the proper respect.
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Lost in all these comments is the inconvenient truth that the SEC has not earned that respect by winning more games against other Power Four teams in the playoff than it has lost. But thankfully for them, Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Bret Bielema is here to remind them.
Illinois head coach Bret Bielema yells at an official during the second half of the Music City Bowl NCAA college football game against Tennessee, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Bielema at Big Ten media days had some harsh words for the SEC and commissioner Sankey in his introductory comments, saying they’re looking to “protect” the conference.
“(Greg) Sankey, I know he’s gotta protect the SEC and they kinda wanna live in 2005 forever…”
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“I think the forward thinking in college football is an awesome thing.”
He said that two “components” have altered the sport dramatically, the transfer portal and NIL, which has leveled the playing field between schools. Though he did stop short of saying the SEC may have had some financial advantages over other conferences before the introduction of NIL.
“Basically the two biggest things, the biggest components are the transfer portal and revenue share, NIL, however you want to describe it — when those two elements came into college football, the whole world changed,” he said.
He also brought up specific examples of players who came to Illinois because of NIL, players that would not have picked Champaign-Urbana if not for those opportunities.
“The last three years — the quarterback I have now, we would not have gotten in the world that existed five years ago. I know that,” he added. “Neither would my left tackle, my left guard, my center, and my right tackle wouldn’t be here playing for me. And you go around to every team, and the rosters have changed because of those two components: the transfer rule and revenue share. It’s a different world. Anything beyond that is nonsense.”
This wasn’t Bielema’s only, uh, brush with the SEC recently. Last week, he took a shot at Nick Saban over Saban’s defense of his former conference.
Nick Saban, former head football coach at the University of Alabama, testifies before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 2026. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
On “Get Up ESPN,” Saban turned his back on the arguments that the SEC has long made to define itself as the best conference in the sport, saying that winning championships isn’t the most important outcome. A stark contrast from when the SEC was winning championships.
“Whoever wins the National Championship doesn’t define who has the best conference,” Saban said. “I think the best conference gets defined by how many good teams you have from top to bottom.”
Well Bielema saw those comments and shared them with a picture of the 21-17 Illinois win over South Carolina in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and the 30-28 win over Tennessee in the Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl, adding, “I agree with you coach and appreciate you bringing this up……”
Ouch.
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There is something to be said for this argument, too, because the SEC’s “depth” seems to be consistently overrated, at least in recent years’ samples. Teams like Missouri, for example, did not win a single game over a team with a winning record in 2026. But because they play in the SEC, they were ranked at times throughout the regular season, including by the selection committee. Treated as part of the impressive “depth,” despite literally never leaving the central time zone all season, not playing a road game until October 18, and giving themselves four free wins with their non-conference schedule.
Illinois football head coach Bret Bielema speaks during Media Days at the Hilton Chicago on July 28, 2026. (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
Tennessee, too, did not beat a team with a winning record. That doesn’t mean the Volunteers were bad, necessarily, but they are under the protection of their conference logo patch, which gives them additional depth points.
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What really matters is that the SEC is just 2-7 against other Power Four conferences in the College Football Playoff in the NIL era, while the Big Ten is 9-3. It’s not just the championships, it’s clear that the SEC has fallen behind in the NIL era. Just ask Bret Bielema, he’ll happily remind you.