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Former Big Ten and SEC coach Urban Meyer has remained candidly unfiltered regarding his thoughts on which conference's brand of football is stronger.
In a nutshell, if the Big Ten hasn't surpassed the SEC, it's extremely close, Meyer said on "The Script" podcast.
Over the last decade-plus, Meyer has seen the sudden shift in dominance, which he said wasn't the case during much of his coaching tenure, regardless of which school he was at.
"I don't believe the Big Ten was very serious back in 2012," Meyer said. "I don't think the opponents' stadiums were very serious. I don't think the recruiting was very serious. You know, I thought the Big Ten conference was OK, but then they'd go get their [expletive] kicked in the bowl games. And I saw it, I came from the SEC, and I was like, 'What are we doing?' You know, you go into these stadiums, and they're not hard to play in."
The shift began, Meyer said, when the conference opted to put their chips in the proverbial football basket only a few years later.
"Other teams in that conference got real serious," Meyer said, referencing the likes of the Penn State Nittany Lions and Michigan Wolverines.
But then, non-blue bloods like the defending national champion Indiana Hoosiers and surging Illinois Fighting Illini came along, creating a title-wave effect that suggested any team, regardless of brand, could compete.
"You go in there now with Big Noon, and some of these environments are fantastic. Go ask how the [Indiana Hoosiers] boys are doing in Bloomington, Indiana. They got real serious about the game of football. Illinois, they got real serious. They hired the right guy [Bret Bielema]. They got really good players and they're beating SEC teams in a bowl game."
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The Fighting Illini are fresh off back-to-back bowl wins against the South Carolina Gamecocks and Tennessee Volunteers, as Bielema has continued to elevate the program from irrelevance to a national contender in five seasons since his arrival in Champaign in 2021.
With the shift in power, college football is certainly evolving. But from Meyer's viewpoint, it's the game's enhancement that has made the sport's unpredictability fascinating.
"I think the Big Ten, and there's a lot of credit to go around to the ADs, the administrators, etc., the Big Ten got real serious about the game of football," Meyer concluded.
Nonetheless, Meyer seems impressed with what he has seen over the last few years as the sport continues to grow.
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This fall should be no different, but the games have to play out first.
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