SerpApi.Org
Since Georgia won its second straight national championship in 2023, the SEC has not returned to the mountaintop in college football. All the while, the Big Ten has won three titles in a row, and ESPN analyst Greg McElroy attempted to diagnose the SEC’s postseason struggles.
McElroy pointed out the level of competition within the conference and the quality of opponents each week. That’s been a point of conversation amid the SEC’s drought, particularly with regard to strength of schedule.
[ $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage ]
However, that wasn’t McElroy’s point. He said teams from the conference are “out of gas” by the time they reach the postseason, which he thinks is a factor in the three-year run without a national championship. With that, he added teams likely need to start doing different things during the time between the regular season and College Football Playoff.
“The war of attrition you experience in this league, and the injuries and the violence that you get week-in and week-out playing against teams with this much quality on their roster, takes its toll,” McElroy said Tuesday night on SEC Now. “So by the time you get to the Playoff, you’re beat up, you’re banged up and frankly, it’s not like, ‘Oh, you’re calloused. You’re ready to roll.’ No, you’re exhausted. So I think that’s part of the reason why the SEC hasn’t been as good in the postseason. Because they, at that point, are out of gas.
“They’ve got to figure out a way to reinvent themselves between the last game of the regular season or the SEC championship game and the playoffs so that they can go [upward] as opposed to [downward], which is exactly what we’ve seen the last few years in the league.”
Greg McElroy: NIL has not given Big Ten ‘massive advantage’
Throughout the NIL era, conversations have come up about how the new landscape has impacted the Big Ten’s success. Talent is dispersing across the country as roster costs soar and the transfer portal leads to more player movement.
However, Greg McElroy said that doesn’t seem to be the reason the Big Ten has won three straight championships, noting the team with the most money has not won the championship each year. Indiana coach Curt Cignetti made that clear this offseason. But because of the SEC’s depth, there’s more talent on the other side each week, which means stronger competition.
“Until the team that spends the most money wins the championship every year, I’m not convinced the Big Ten has this massive advantage,” McElroy said. “The reality of this is not a popular opinion amongst those that cover college football outside the SEC. But as someone that has talked to coaches – whether it’s in the [NFL], out of the league, what have you – the respect that they have for the SEC and the gauntlet that you have to run is unlike that of what you experience in other leagues.
“The reality is, when LSU tees it up or Alabama or Georgia or Texas, when they tee it up on a Saturday – whether it’s on the road or at home – there are 10, 11, maybe 12 teams on a given day that can beat them. The reality is for the teams up north – whether it’s Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, what have you – there’s five teams that might be able to beat them on any one given day. So you now have five more games that are technically ‘losable.’ They’ll say, ‘No, no, no. That’s a reflection on the top end of the talent.’ No. That’s a reflection on the bottom end of the pool, relatively speaking.”
