SEC needs a new motto, because Big Ten rules college sports

It just means more agony.

The SEC used to be the best conference in college sports, and it lorded its superiority over its peers. It’s not the best anymore. At least, it’s not the best in football or men’s basketball. The Big Ten stole the crown, and the SEC cannot hide from reality.

The Big Ten won the past three college football national championships, but the problem goes deeper than that. The SEC hasn’t even reached the College Football Playoff national championship game since 2023 Georgia won it all.

Now, as insult to injury, the Big Ten sent two teams to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament, while the SEC sits at home.

On this edition of “SEC Football Unfiltered,” a podcast from the USA TODAY Network, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams address the SEC’s reality and how dire the situation is.

Is the SEC still the best conference? Or, does the Big Ten rule?

Adams: The Big Ten wears the crown in football. That’s a fact. You can’t argue trophies. You can’t argue the scoreboard, either.

Indiana 38, Alabama 3.

The SEC didn’t just lose its leg to stand on. Indiana devoured the leg.

Toppmeyer: Agreed, and the Big Ten’s claim of superiority is helped by the fact three teams produced the past three national championships. Michigan, Ohio State and now Indiana won titles since the last SEC crown. The Big Ten is no one-hit wonder.

What about the SEC’s depth?

Adams: That’s where the SEC’s problem worsens. For a while, even if the Big Ten was better at the top, the SEC was better in the middle. I’m not so sure about that anymore. The SEC looked pretty lousy in postseason games last season, illustrating the depth of the problem.

Toppmeyer: Reseed the Final Four? That idea is as bad as last time I heard it

Adams: If misery loves company, Tennessee and Alabama can be bedfellows

Toppmeyer: The Big Ten’s crème de la crème has been sweeter than the SEC’s for a few years. Now, it’s sweeter down ballot, too.

Iowa 34, Vanderbilt 27.

Illinois 30, Tennessee 28.

Those were postseason scorelines.

Texas saved some face for the SEC by beating Michigan, 41-27, in the Citrus Bowl, but, on the whole, the SEC’s claim of superior depth eroded.

The SEC used to flex unmatched muscle in the boardroom, too, but even that ability is gone. The conference tried to grow the playoff to 16 teams for the 2026 season and beyond, but the Big Ten erected a road block and stopped the SEC’s CFP expansion plans in their tracks.

So, the Big Ten is better at the top, as good in the middle, and it’s a thorn in the side of the SEC’s boardroom operations.

Where does that leave the SEC? Well, maybe it can still say its last-place team is better than the Big Ten’s last-place team.

How’s that for a new conference motto? Our last-place team would beat your last-place team.

On second thought, I’m not sure that’s true. Notre Dame played the worst teams from the SEC and Big Ten in consecutive weeks last fall. The Irish beat Purdue 56-30, then trounced Arkansas 56-13.

Back to the drawing board for the SEC.

OK, but how strong is the Big Ten’s claim of basketball superiority?

Adams: The Big Ten’s basketball claim isn’t as entrenched. In 2025, the SEC delivered one of the best basketball performances by a conference ever, and Florida won the national title.

The Big Ten started to make its claim for the basketball throne around the time Iowa bounced the defending champion and No. 1-seeded Gators in the second round of this tournament. Then, Michigan waylaid the SEC’s last-team-standing, Tennessee.

This year, the SEC qualified 10 teams to the Big Ten’s nine bids, but the Big Ten produced a better tournament record, four Elite Eight teams and now two teams in the Final Four. At least for this season, the Big Ten rules basketball.

Toppmeyer: The Big Ten’s claim of basketball superiority would be strengthened if either Michigan or Illinois wins the national championship. The conference’s tournament performance has been strong, much stronger than the SEC’s this year, but the SEC finished the job in 2025 thanks to Florida. The Big Ten still has not produced a basketball national champion since 2000 Michigan State. For the Big Ten to fully assert in its basketball status, it needs a champ.

Where to listen to SEC Football Unfiltered

• Apple
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• iHeart
• Google

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. John Adams is the senior sports columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinel. Subscribe to the SEC Football Unfiltered podcast, and check out the SEC Unfiltered newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Big Ten rules college football and basketball, so SEC needs a new motto

NCAA approves suspensions for coaches and fines for schools that take 'ghost transfers'

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA Division I Cabinet on Wednesday approved emergency legislation that will severely penalize coaches and schools that sign, add to the roster or allow athletic participation by an athlete in any sport who hasn’t yet gone through the portal process.

Penalties include a suspension of the head coach for 50% of a season and a fine amounting to 20% of that sport’s budget.

The rule change, which was initially proposed by the Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee and has been adopted for all sports in Division I, is effective immediately and applies to all transfers on or after Feb. 25, 2026.

“I am grateful the DI Cabinet approved the FBS Oversight Committee’s recommendation to impose significant penalties on head coaches and programs who circumvent transfer rules, along with immediate accountability,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said. “This is a necessary step to address a critical roster management issue facing our sport and to protect the integrity of football’s transfer window.”

The “ghost transfers” issue has been on the NCAA’s radar since former Wisconsin defensive back Xavier Lucas transferred to Miami without entering the portal in January 2025. Quarterback Jake Retzlaff withdrew from BYU and walked on at Tulane in July.

At the direction of the Division I Board of Directors, an Infractions Process Task Force is reviewing the infractions process and associated penalties for violations of NCAA rules. Among the topics the task force will discuss are enforcement of transfer rules and penalties associated with tampering violations. The task force is expected to provide recommendations for modernizing the infractions process later this year.

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Falcons GM Ian Cunningham says 'work to be done' in NFL minority hiring, despite Florida AG pushback

PHOENIX (AP) — First-year Atlanta Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham said he’ll continue to push for more diversity in the NFL’s leadership positions, even after Florida’s attorney general wrote that the league’s minority hiring guidelines violate Florida state law.

Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell saying the league’s 23-year-old Rooney Rule amounts to “blatant race and sex discrimination.”

“Just from my position, especially being a Black man, there’s still work to be done,” Cunningham told The Associated Press on Monday at the NFL’s league meetings. “Now that I’m in this position and have this platform, I’m going to be intentional about what we do from a grassroots effort to a director level.

“I do think it’s important to give people of all races and sexes a chance to be in a position to further their career.”

The Rooney Rule requires teams to interview at least two minority candidates for head coach, general manager and coordinator positions. At least one minority candidate must be interviewed for the quarterbacks coach position.

The 40-year-old Cunningham was hired as the Falcons general manger in January after four seasons as an assistant GM with the Chicago Bears. He’s also spent time in the front office for the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles.

Cunningham said he didn’t have a comment on Uthmeier’s specific concerns, saying he didn’t have all the details.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles — who is one of just three Black head coaches in the league — also said he needed more information before deciding if Uthmeier’s complaint had any merit.

“The political part of it, if he wants it out, and he has reasons why, I got to hear cases and all that,” Bowles said. “If I were the judge sitting behind a bench, I would probably have more info right now what he thinks, but I don’t.”

Uthmeier asked Goodell to confirm by May 1 that the NFL was no longer enforcing the Rooney Rule in Florida, or the league could face civil rights action. There are three NFL teams in Florida — the Buccaneers, Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars.

“NFL fans in Florida don’t care what color their coach’s skin is,” the letter said. “They care what colors their coach is wearing — and that those colors are winning on the football field. The Rooney Rule and its offshoots are illegal in Florida.”

The NFL will have only three head coaches and four general managers who are Black next season. There were 10 head coach openings this season and none of them were filled by a Black coach.

Robert Saleh, who is of Lebanese descent, was the only minority to get a job during the most recent head coach hiring cycle when he was hired by Tennessee.

This was just the fifth time since the start of the Rooney Rule in 2003 that no Black head coaches were hired during an offseason coaching cycle. The only other time it happened in a year with more than five changes was 2013, when there were eight openings.

Goodell isn’t scheduled to speak at the NFL’s annual meetings until Tuesday, but said in February that increasing diversity is still one of the league’s goals.

“We need to continue to make progress,” Goodell said. “I believe that and I believe diversity is good for us. … I think we have to become a more diverse league across every platform, including coaching. But we still have more work to do.”

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AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this story.

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