LAS VEGAS — The hottest rivalry in college football is not between teams. It is not Ohio State vs. Michigan, even with the pepper spray. It is not Auburn vs. Alabama. It is not Texas vs. Texas A&M. It is not the Holy War or CyHawk or the Apple Cup or Red River.
The hottest rivalry in college football is between leagues. It’s the Big Ten vs. the Southeastern Conference, which always simmers but currently boils. After days of rhetorical crossfire between them pertaining to the College Football Playoff, credit Penn State coach James Franklin with supplying the last dash of petty on Wednesday.
At Big Ten media days, Franklin referred to the SEC as “that other conference.” He did it at least three times, basically giving it the same treatment Ohio State gives Michigan by refusing to utter its actual name.
If the Wolverines are “The Team Up North” to the Buckeyes, the SEC is “The League Down South” to Franklin, who lamented some areas in which the SEC out-promotes the Big Ten.
“That other conference, when they have their [spring] meetings, there’s essentially a press conference every single day at the end of the meetings,” said Franklin, who coached in the SEC at Vanderbilt from 2011–13 before moving to Penn State. “It keeps people talking about that conference at a time of the year that makes them relevant. We’re not doing that. We need to be talking about the Big Ten and our programs and the things we have done, and making it as accessible to everybody as we possibly can, and connecting with the fans.”
The competing conference drumbeats thumped loudly last December, when Indiana earned one of four Big Ten bids and the SEC got only three. Lordly Alabama being left out led to some people actively losing their minds. Since then, the playoff contentiousness has escalated. Alignment between the two most powerful leagues on a so-called “4-4-2-2-1” CFP format collapsed in the spring, when SEC coaches prevailed upon their league’s leadership to support a “5-11” plan instead.
(A brief explainer of the numerology shorthand for a 16-team playoff: 4-4-2-2-1 refers to four automatic bids for each of the Big Ten and SEC, two each for the Big 12 and ACC, and one for a Group of 6 conference champion, plus three at-large spots; 5-11 means one automatic bid each for five conferences, and 11 at-large bids.)
That divergence fed into media days—the SEC in Atlanta, the Big Ten here—and transformed the annual “Talking Season” into competing campaign platforms. The SEC hammered away with four days of “strength of schedule” rhetoric. The Big Ten has responded with a three-day mantra championing “nine league games,” while its coaches praised commissioner Tony Petitti with cultish consistency.
The SEC believes it plays the toughest schedules in the land, even with just eight conference games, because it has historically been the best league. SEC backers point to 13 national championships in the last 19 years, a depth of competition that is difficult to refute, and a mandated nonconference game against a Power 4 opponent or Notre Dame.
The Big Ten’s response is to point at the recent scoreboard, which shows its league winning the last two national titles and owning an 8–3 playoff record in that time, while the SEC went 1–4. Never mind that it was the Big Ten’s first back-to-back national titles since 1941 and ’42; the past is not part of the current campaign.
“For the last two seasons, our conference showed its strength and dominance with back-to-back national champions,” Washington coach Jedd Fisch said. “I don’t think you prepare any better for the NFL than playing in our conference. Every week you have to travel, just like the NFL. It is not a regional league.
“It’s a national league. I would tell you, as we go, that’s why it’s so imperative we need four automatic bids, a nine-game schedule in the Big Ten Conference. We can’t leave it up to chance with a 5-11 combo.”
The nine-game Big Ten schedule has been hammered by coaches like nails into a board.
“You want to decide [playoff bids] on the field and make sure everybody’s strength of schedule is what it needs to be?” asked Indiana provocateur Curt Cignetti. “Let’s make everybody play nine conference games.”
A CFP format impasse is an increasing likelihood. The Big Ten seems unwilling to move off its 4-4-2-2-1 idea—and attending play-in payday. The SEC seems unwilling to add a ninth league game for 2026. We may have a 12-team playoff again in ’26, which would be an acceptable outcome.
Unless or until those two leagues come to an agreement on future format, the debates between them will rage. In the meantime, a few facts and figures to keep in mind:
Fans can twist those numbers into meaning whatever they want them to mean. But what could really move the Big Ten–SEC rivalry needle are three enticing head-to-head matchups early in the season: Texas at Ohio State, Michigan at Oklahoma and Wisconsin at Alabama.
It’s a very small sample size, but it will further frame the debate about which conference is better. The Longhorns visiting the defending champion Buckeyes in Week 1 is the most significant of the three and could be especially important in establishing part of the playoff pecking order.
Until bragging rights can be established on the field, the hottest college football rivalry will continue to boil in the court of public opinion.
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