Bret Bielema Trolls Nick Saban Saying Big Ten Hasn't Surpassed SEC Despite 3 Straight Title Wins

Illinois head coach Bret Bielema offered an amusing response to Nick Saban's stance that the SEC remains superior to the Big Ten, despite the latter conference producing the national champion in each of the last three seasons.

After Saban said this week on ESPN's Get Up that the best conference is "defined by how many good teams you have from top to bottom," Bielema responded on X with an image showing Illinois' bowl wins over SEC teams from the past two years.

If you judge a conference's dominance by national titles, then the SEC doesn't have a strong argument right now to be better than the Big Ten. Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana have won the last three national titles.

In addition to the Big Ten winning the College Football Playoff Championship Game in each of the past three years, the SEC hasn't had a team play in the final game since Georgia's victory over TCU in January 2023.

Washington, Notre Dame and Miami are the three non-Big Ten representatives to reach the title game since the 2023 season.

If you go by Saban's logic that the entirety of the conference determines which one is best, the SEC does come out on top even though it's close between the two.

Using 2025 records, for instance, the combined record for the 18 Big Ten teams was 137-97 (.585 winning percentage) compared to 125-83 (.601 winning percentage) for the 16 SEC teams.

The SEC did go 4-8 in bowl games, though one of them was awash because Mississippi and Georgia played head-to-head in the Playoff quarterfinals that Ole Miss won 39-34.

The Big Ten finished 11-4 in bowl games last season, including 3-1 against SEC opponents. The lone blemish was Michigan's 41-27 loss to Texas in the Citrus Bowl.