INDIANAPOLIS — Paying players in violation of NCAA rules, formerly the exclusive strategy of schools in the Southeastern Conference, is no longer a thing. That’s why the Big Ten is dominating.
Do you know who would laugh hardest at that fallacy? Men’s basketball coaches who spent any length of time in the Big Ten — at any point from the time Richard Nixon was under investigation until Will Wade was under investigation. The Fab Five was here in Indy the past few days, cheering on Michigan’s national championship run. Heard of them? Google the Fab Five.
Or read Scott Dochterman’s lesson on Iowa-Illinois bitterness. Look, people in college athletics overwhelmingly credit the SEC with historically bending rules like no one else. After all, the phrase is, “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’,” not, “Ope, gonna sneak by ya and drop off this bag of cash, you betcha.”
But the history that led to this Big Ten moment of glory is getting some hyperbolic treatment. I suspect the same is true of the analysis of future ramifications.
The Big Ten is winning all the big ones now. That doesn’t mean the SEC is done winning the big ones. There’s too much money at stake and openly being thrown around to take that idea seriously. This isn’t Greasers vs. Socs. This is rich kids vs. rich kids, and they’ve been throwing money around (and barbs at each other) in a variety of ways for a long, long time.
The SEC reported revenues of $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2025, paying out $72.4 million to its 14 full members. The Big Ten should be a tick above that when its numbers come out soon. That’s worth another barb, but what does an extra Bugatti in the driveway really mean? Both are far beyond any other league, and the gap is widening.
I mean, we all remember the good old days for the SEC, right? Back when it won 89 percent of its men’s basketball nonleague games — unheard of since the ACC of 1983 — and got a record 14 teams in one NCAA Tournament, a record seven teams in the Sweet 16, a record-tying four teams in the Elite Eight, two in the Final Four, winning a record 23 games, earning a record $70 million for the league in one tournament and claiming the championship?
That happened all of one year ago. Yet because Michigan emphatically broke the league’s 26-year title drought — in the same city rival Michigan State won the last one, under Tom Izzo in the year 2000 — people are acting like the SEC is the Sun Belt.
The Big Ten has earned the right to crow. Michigan AD Warde Manuel and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti reveled next to each other Monday night as the Wolverines beat Connecticut 69-63 for the title at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“It was awesome, he was so happy,” Warde said of Petitti. “I mean, look what we did. We won in football, we won in women’s basketball yesterday and we won in men’s basketball today.”
Indiana’s football championship under Curt Cignetti, one of the remarkable stories in American sports, made it three in a row in that sport, after the SEC had won 13 of the previous 17. UCLA’s women’s basketball championship broke a drought that dated back to Purdue in 1999, even if it still feels weird to talk about UCLA winning one for the Big Ten (and giving the Big Ten the No. 1 baseball and beach volleyball teams in the nation).
“The Big Ten has the resources,” said another reveler in maize and blue Monday night, former Michigan men’s basketball coach John Beilein. “Between the Big Ten Network and just the brand of schools that we have, there’s so many different teams that can win a championship now.”
He’s right, but that’s true in the SEC as well. It’s true for plenty in the Big 12, ACC and Big East. It’s true at any program that combines investment with smart hiring. That’s why Vanderbilt — apparently the only SEC school that wasn’t tryin’ for decades — now wins in everything. And Beilein was actually the first step in what led to the thrill of watching Dusty May bring it home Monday night.
Former Michigan AD Bill Martin hired Beilein in 2007, and Beilein quickly brought a program more than two decades removed from even a Big Ten title to prominence. He got to two NCAA championship games. He made it so when Manuel pursued May two years ago, May saw a program with the chops to win big and with consistency.
So Manuel made one of the best basketball hires of the century. Shortly after, Indiana AD Scott Dolson made one of the best football hires. Brilliant coaching upgrades dragged SEC men’s basketball out of the figurative gutter 10 years ago, and those decisions from ADs in both leagues will dictate who’s winning more big ones in years to come.
The money’s always there. They always find it. They always have. It’s about using it correctly. Like May did last offseason. Like Mark Pope at the SEC’s flagship program didn’t.
