Jan. 24, 2026, 10:10 p.m. ET

College football bowl season can often feel like a subtle metaphor for the Civil War. That’s because every December and January, national narratives focus on the SEC vs. the rest of the country. And given how the map of states with SEC schools almost perfectly matches the map of the Confederacy, well, the analogy just comes naturally.

Plus, the Southeastern Conference‘s marketing slogan is, quite literally, “it just means more.” Can’t think of a better example of Southern exceptionalism than that. Not to mention ESPN basically runs the College Football Playoff, and we obviously all know what conference comes first in the eyes of the Bristol, CT based network.

The joke of “eSECpn” is well known to any college football fan. ESPN and their SEC emphasis/favoritism made “SEC speed” a common colloquialism and Paul Finebaum a nationally relevant media figure. The self-proclaimed “World Wide Leader” in sports told us that college football was the SEC’s world, and we were just living in it.

And for most of the 2000s, 2010s, and even the early 2020s, the conference backed this up on the field. Every national title from 2006-2012 and 2019-2022 was won by a school from the Southeastern conference. They dominated NFL Draft night too, with players from Alabama, LSU, Florida, Georgia, Texas A&M etc. populating the picks made in the first round every year.

However, a seismic shift has occurred. The last three national title games did not feature any team from the SEC. The league is no longer living up to the Finebaum/ESPN hype. They’re falling behind the Big Ten on the field, and maybe even soon the ACC as well. This is true with television ratings too. The top games in viewership mostly featured Big Ten, not SEC, teams this past season.

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And what will happen when the draft comes along in April? Well, according to this site’s latest mock, no SEC player wll be picked in the top 10. And of the 32 picks in the first round, 10 come the SEC. The Big Ten has 13.

While the SEC hasn’t been winning titles lately, we’re told they still land the best recruits, year after year. They are the conference with the most five-stars, or blue-chip players. They should still, at least in theory, produce the most NFL talent.

Or maybe that’s changed now, given what Nick Saban, now the Godfather figure of SEC football, said about top tier players leaving The South to go play where it’s colder. While Saban made national headlines for his remarks, he honestly didn’t say anything bigger or more profound than “semi-professional football players are going to teams where they are paid more.”

That was basically it, and anyone who labeled it “trolling” or anything else equally hyperbolic in nature to that terminology, just doesn’t get it. And every single college football podcast on Earth has been talking about the “SEC’s demise/decline” all week, with the hot takers out there claiming the SEC is “over.” (We’ve also seen the “Finebaum’s career/credibility is done” take as well)

However, when you strip out all the excessive exaggeration, intended only to get clicks, the truth is pretty clear. It’s very simple, and doesn’t require a ton of analysis. When it was against NCAA rules to pay players, the SEC dominated.

Now that you can players, openly, the SEC is just another conference like everyone else.