Big Ten football took the SEC's power. Then, it broke its brain | Opinion

• Kirby Smart shares a theory that's brewing in the SEC: The Big Ten is winning, because the SEC's worst teams are too good.
• Smart admits the Big Ten has "more good teams" at top of conference than it used to have.
• Look again at what Arkansas, Auburn, others in bottom of SEC did. They aren't responsible for Indiana title.

First, the Big Ten overthrew the SEC and seized the trophy.

Then, the conference up North zapped the SEC’s collective mind.

Now, some gold-medalist level mental gymnastics emanate from south of the Mason-Dixon to explain the Big Ten’s reign.

Kirby Smart says some SEC coaches have a theory on the Big Ten winning three consecutive national championships, and, boy, it's a doozy.

Goes something like this: Arkansas is too good.

Mississippi State, also too good.

That’s the theory, anyway, as Smart laid it out in a recent interview with “The Next Round” podcast.

“This is the (theory) that nobody likes to hear, and a lot of SEC coaches are saying this in our meetings. They say, ‘They don’t have the grind that we do,'" Smart said, with the “they” in that sentence being the Big Ten.

"Three of (the Big Ten’s) nine games are hard, but their bottom four games are not our bottom four games. I’m going to play in Starkville and Vanderbilt in my bottom four, and I’m holding onto my butt."

Are you kidding me? The SEC can’t produce a national champion, because its dregs are too stout, and playing those bottom-feeders takes a toll?

If SEC coaches believe that, as Smart says they do, then the Big Ten didn’t just seize the crown and scepter. It broke the SEC’s spirit and polluted their brain.

SEC’s new battle cry centers on its worst teams being too tough

As recently as a few years ago, the SEC homers triumphantly chanted “S-E-C! S-E-C!", and they’d tell anyone who’d listen their conference was better than your conference. A true story back then, too. Read all about it in Paul Finebaum’s paperback.

Now, the SEC’s battle cry goes like something this: Our last-place team is better than your last-place team!

I’m not even convinced that’s true. I watched Arkansas lose to Memphis, then watched the Hogs lose by 43 points to Notre Dame a week later.

To the extent it is true, though, there’s still no trophy for having the best 2-10 team — just a ready-made excuse.

SEC football’s dregs explain national championship drought? Oh, c’mon

Let’s unpack the theory Smart floated.

For starters, Smart mentioned Vanderbilt, but the Commodores finished nowhere near the SEC’s bottom four last season. The Commodores tied for fifth in the SEC standings. Then, they lost to Iowa in a bowl game. Before anyone tries to cook up an opt-outs excuse for that bowl loss, remember Vanderbilt superstar Diego Pavia played in that game.

Iowa, by the way, finished sixth in the Big Ten standings before beating Vanderbilt 34-27.

Anyway, back to this “bottom four” theory.

Let’s head straight to the bottom of the SEC’s bottom four. There, you’ll find Arkansas.

Arkansas finished 2-10 last season, and Notre Dame destroyed the Hogs, 56-13.

Purdue, the Big Ten’s worst team, finished 2-10 and lost to Notre Dame by 26 points.

If this bottom-four theory is put to trial, the SEC might not want Notre Dame to testify.

Who would’ve won if Arkansas and Purdue had played? Not sure, but such a game would’ve violated the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment terms.

As Big Ten rules college football, excuses form in SEC

Florida also claimed a spot among the SEC’s dregs, although the Gators finished just ahead of the bottom four, where South Carolina, Auburn and Mississippi State joined Arkansas.

Smart’s Bulldogs had their hands full with Florida. Georgia prevailed over Billy Napier’s beleaguered squad, 24-20.

Close game, because the SEC’s lower tier is so tough, eh?

Well, about that, Florida lost to South Florida — in The Swamp, no less.

Tell me again how good the SEC’s dregs are.

When Auburn and Kentucky tusseled last November, the teams combined for four turnovers, 13 punts and 13 points.

When Kentucky played Louisville to end the season, the Wildcats lost 41-0.

Forty-one to zip.

Kentucky beat two SEC teams, but it couldn’t muster a point against Louisville.

But, sure, the likes of Kentucky and Auburn were so darn tough that they helped Indiana win the national championship.

Riiiigggghhhht.

Speaking of Indiana, Alabama finished its season with a blowout loss to the Hoosiers. Blame it on a rugged SEC schedule. Just don’t call Florida State to the witness stand.

Kirby Smart: In SEC’s heyday, ‘you couldn’t mess it up.’

The only time the SEC played a 10-game conference schedule, in 2020, Alabama blitzed the competition and won the national championship.

If you’d said then the Tide won it all because the Big Ten had a superior bottom four, you’d have been banished from the South.

Similarly, it’s farcical to attribute the Big Ten’s current reign to the SEC’s worst teams being better than the Big Ten's worst teams. The Big Ten has won three straight titles because its best teams have become second to none.

Also, as Smart noted, SEC teams cannot horde talent to the extent Nick Saban did amid his dynasty, or to the degree Smart amassed when Georgia won back-to-back national titles.

“People have money” to spend on NIL, Smart said, “so the talent is spread out thin. Where, before, in the SEC, it was a magnet to talent. The disparity was so great that you couldn’t mess it up. You’d win regardless. Now, it’s like, OK, it’s more even.”

That makes more sense than chalking up the Big Ten’s reign to Mississippi State’s ferocity.

Kirby Smart: 'More good teams' at top of Big Ten than used to be

How’s this for talent spreading out like never before?

The 2025 Hoosiers possessed the nation’s best quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, amid a veteran, disciplined team that forced turnovers, limited mistakes and supplied a program-record eight NFL draftees.

Pretending Indiana won it all because Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi suffered too much at the hands of Mississippi State, South Carolina and Arkansas requires some serious brain bending, and Smart didn’t sound entirely convinced of the “bottom four” theory, to which he said some SEC coaches subscribe.

“I just think they have a more competitive conference. At the top of their conference, there are more good teams," Smart said of the Big Ten.

Jackpot. That’s the answer to the Big Ten’s reign.

Cream rises.

Indiana didn’t crush Alabama because the Hoosiers played Purdue in the regular season instead of South Carolina, or because they faced Iowa instead of Tennessee, or because they faced Ohio State instead of Georgia in a conference championship game.

The Hoosiers smashed Alabama, because they were a much more complete team.

And, if Indiana had played Arkansas or Mississippi State in the regular season? Well, the Hoosiers might still be scoring touchdowns.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @btoppme