{"id":860812,"date":"2026-04-08T11:55:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/860812\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T11:55:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:55:28","slug":"big-ten-braggers-did-you-forget-what-the-sec-did-checks-notes-one-year-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/860812\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Ten braggers, did you forget what the SEC did (checks notes) \u2026 one year ago?"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Paying players in violation of NCAA rules, formerly the exclusive strategy of schools in the Southeastern Conference, is no longer a thing. That\u2019s why the Big Ten is dominating.<\/p>\n

Do you know who would laugh hardest at that fallacy? Men\u2019s basketball coaches who spent any length of time in the Big Ten \u2014 at any point from the time Richard Nixon was under investigation until Will Wade was under investigation. The Fab Five was here in Indy the past few days, cheering on Michigan\u2019s national championship run. Heard of them? Google the Fab Five<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Or read Scott Dochterman\u2019s lesson on Iowa-Illinois bitterness<\/a>. Look, people in college athletics overwhelmingly credit the SEC with historically bending rules like no one else. After all, the phrase is, \u201cIf you ain\u2019t cheatin\u2019, you ain\u2019t tryin\u2019,\u201d not, \u201cOpe, gonna sneak by ya and drop off this bag of cash, you betcha.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the history that led to this Big Ten moment of glory is getting some hyperbolic treatment. I suspect the same is true of the analysis of future ramifications.<\/p>\n

The Big Ten is winning all the big ones now. That doesn\u2019t mean the SEC is done winning the big ones. There\u2019s too much money at stake and openly being thrown around to take that idea seriously. This isn\u2019t Greasers vs. Socs. This is rich kids vs. rich kids, and they\u2019ve been throwing money around (and barbs at each other) in a variety of ways for a long, long time.<\/p>\n

The SEC reported revenues of $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2025, paying out $72.4 million to its 14 full members. The Big Ten should be a tick above that when its numbers come out soon. That\u2019s worth another barb, but what does an extra Bugatti in the driveway really mean? Both are far beyond any other league, and the gap is widening.<\/p>\n

I mean, we all remember the good old days for the SEC, right? Back when it won 89 percent of its men\u2019s basketball nonleague games \u2014 unheard of since the ACC of 1983 \u2014 and got a record 14 teams in one NCAA Tournament, a record seven teams in the Sweet 16, a record-tying four teams in the Elite Eight, two in the Final Four, winning a record 23 games, earning a record $70 million for the league in one tournament and claiming the championship?<\/p>\n

That happened all of one year ago. Yet because Michigan emphatically broke the league\u2019s 26-year title drought \u2014 in the same city rival Michigan State won the last one, under Tom Izzo in the year 2000 \u2014 people are acting like the SEC is the Sun Belt.<\/p>\n

The Big Ten has earned the right to crow. Michigan AD Warde Manuel and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti reveled next to each other Monday night as the Wolverines beat Connecticut 69-63<\/a> for the title at Lucas Oil Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome, he was so happy,\u201d Warde said of Petitti. \u201cI mean, look what we did. We won in football, we won in women\u2019s basketball yesterday and we won in men\u2019s basketball today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indiana\u2019s football championship under Curt Cignetti, one of the remarkable stories in American sports, made it three in a row in that sport, after the SEC had won 13 of the previous 17. UCLA\u2019s women\u2019s basketball championship broke a drought that dated back to Purdue in 1999, even if it still feels weird to talk about UCLA winning one for the Big Ten (and giving the Big Ten the No. 1 baseball and beach volleyball teams in the nation).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Big Ten has the resources,\u201d said another reveler in maize and blue Monday night, former Michigan men\u2019s basketball coach John Beilein. \u201cBetween the Big Ten Network and just the brand of schools that we have, there\u2019s so many different teams that can win a championship now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right, but that\u2019s true in the SEC as well. It\u2019s true for plenty in the Big 12, ACC and Big East. It\u2019s true at any program that combines investment with smart hiring. That\u2019s why Vanderbilt \u2014 apparently the only SEC school that wasn\u2019t tryin\u2019 for decades \u2014 now wins in everything. And Beilein was actually the first step in what led to the thrill of watching Dusty May bring it home Monday night.<\/p>\n

Former Michigan AD Bill Martin hired Beilein in 2007, and Beilein quickly brought a program more than two decades removed from even a Big Ten title to prominence. He got to two NCAA championship games. He made it so when Manuel pursued May two years ago, May saw a program with the chops to win big and with consistency.<\/p>\n

So Manuel made one of the best basketball hires of the century. Shortly after, Indiana AD Scott Dolson made one of the best football hires. Brilliant coaching upgrades dragged SEC men\u2019s basketball out of the figurative gutter 10 years ago, and those decisions from ADs in both leagues will dictate who\u2019s winning more big ones in years to come.<\/p>\n

The money\u2019s always there. They always find it. They always have. It\u2019s about using it correctly. Like May did last offseason. Like Mark Pope at the SEC\u2019s flagship program didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Paying players in violation of NCAA rules, formerly the exclusive strategy of schools in the Southeastern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,5480,49,48,320],"class_list":{"0":"post-860812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-mens-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-opinion"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116368960572337960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}