For decades, Southern football held a monopoly on dominance. SEC programs won with unmatched speed, deep rosters, and a ruthless, year-round approach to recruiting. But the Big Ten flipped the script. Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer points to three specific programs that imported that Southern blueprint and transformed Midwestern football forever.

“I think that near the end of my career, you had Penn State, the Wolverines, and the Buckeyes [in the Big Ten] that were starting to, to me, look like SEC-looking teams,” Meyer said when Colin Cowherd asked when the Big Ten finally caught up to the SEC. “When I was hired in 2012, it wasn’t even close, man. The teams were close, the venues weren’t close, the passion of the fans wasn’t close. It’s caught up.”

Traditional Big Ten programs used to rely on regional talent and old-school power football. Down South, college football was an obsession. SEC powerhouses recruited nationally, stacking four- and five-star athletes two-deep at every position. Young stars willingly sat on the bench for a year or two, just waiting for their turn to strike.

Meyer brought the SEC standard directly to Columbus in 2012. He stopped relying strictly on Midwestern talent and built a national recruiting network. By targeting elite speed in Florida, Texas, and Georgia, Ohio State built a roster that could race with Southern teams. That move forced the rest of the Big Ten to adapt or get left behind.

Penn State raised the stakes by hiring James Franklin in 2014, a coach who actually came from the SEC and knew the system inside out. The Nittany Lions stopped treating football like a casual weekend hobby and “got real serious” about spending millions on their program. They poured cash into first-class facilities, hired dozens of support staff, and expanded their recruiting footprint deep into Southern states. Within no time, they were landing four-star/5-star while having multiple double-digit seasons.

Michigan took a different path to the same standard. Rather than focusing purely on skill position speed, the Wolverines built elite, NFL-caliber defensive and offensive line depth. By overwhelming opponents at the line of scrimmage, Michigan mirrored SEC front-sevens, a physical identity that ultimately rewarded them with a national championship.

However, the biggest difference wasn’t just the 11 stars on the field. It was the depth across all 85 scholarship players. Meyer explained that back in the day, the Big Ten had great starting lineups, but their backup players were mediocre. So, by adopting the SEC mentality, these three schools started hoarding so much talent that their second-string players could start for 90% of other college teams. That made every practice more competitive, and the teams no longer wore down late in the season.

This extreme makeover by the “Big Three” eventually forced the entire Big Ten to grow up and expand to 18 teams. Today, new powerhouses like Oregon and USC are part of a Big Ten that looks nothing like it did 15 years ago. Even surprise success stories like Indiana under Curt Cignetti show the SEC way is the way to go about football.

Meyer believes the Big Ten has officially caught up, and perhaps even passed, the SEC by matching its talent, stadiums, and, yes, the fan passion. Not only that, now, in 2026, even smaller conferences are trying their best to follow.