Urban Meyer has won national championships as a member of both the Southeastern and Big Ten conferences during his college football tenure.
The former Ohio State and Florida coach, though, believes the SEC’s reign of dominance is over after the Big Ten placed two teams in the College Football Playoff semifinal — Ohio State and Penn State — and finished the postseason with a 4-1 record against the SEC.
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Meyer also mentioned Notre Dame’s dominance of Georgia, adding the Fighting Irish had better athletes.
“The question is, is the SEC’s dominance over? It is. It’s over,” Meyer said in Saturday’s “The Triple Option” podcast. “Now next year’s another year. But for (at least the last) two years, it’s over.”
Meyer then mentioned Michigan’s win over Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl, as the Wolverines largely dominated the Crimson Tide defensively, despite being a 7-5 regular season team playing without many of their best players.
The SEC has placed two teams in the CFP semifinals in the last two seasons, with Alabama falling to Michigan in 2023 and Texas taking on Ohio State on Friday at the Cotton Bowl. If Texas loses, the SEC will be without a national championship participant for two consecutive years.
“For 2023 and 2024, non-factors,” Meyer said of the SEC. “You got Texas right now, but are you really calling Texas a blue blood of the SEC their first year (in the conference)?”
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Meyer, one of the most successful coaches in recent memory, finished his Florida tenure with a 65-15 record with two national championships in 2006 and 2008. He then won another with the Buckeyes in 2014, only losing nine games in seven seasons in Columbus.
Meyer said he was wrong about being on the SEC bandwagon with a different perspective on the league.
“I’ve missed on some things,” Meyer said. “I was a part of the SEC bandwagon as well. I coached in that conference and from top to bottom it wasn’t even close to the Big Ten in 2012. Even (Meyer’s wife). Shelly, she watched our games and said, ‘What is this. This doesn’t even look … the speed on the field doesn’t even look the same. And it wasn’t.
“You can say what you want, the Big Ten in 2012 wasn’t a good conference relative to the SEC. Not even close. I think what’s happened is there’s been some additions, obviously Oregon, you have Washington, UCLA and USC, but also people have really committed to the Big Ten. The upper echelon of Big Ten Conference schools has really jumped on in terms of recruiting.
Concluded Meyer:
“The Big Ten has passed (the SEC) for 2023 and 2024.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Urban Meyer says SEC’s dominance is over after Big Ten’s bowl success
