SEC under attack from Big Ten, even in previous safe space of NFL draft

• The SEC used to dominate the Big Ten in the NFL Draft. That advantage is eroding.
• From Indiana to Ohio State, the Big Ten could control the NFL Draft within the first 10 picks.
• SEC remains a massive force in the draft, but its advantage has slimmed.

OK, now it’s getting serious for the SEC.

The Big Ten owned the postseason. It whipped the SEC in head-to-head matchups. Indiana trampled Alabama in the Granddaddy game. The Big Ten captured three consecutive national championships, by three different teams, while the teams from the conference where “It Just Means More” sat home when the three championship games were played.

Check out the latest NFL mock draft of your choice, and you’ll realize the SEC’s troubles run deeper than a few trophies. If NFL draft experts are correct, the Big Ten is positioned to muscle its way alongside the SEC for draft selections, at least in the first round.

That’ll be another assault on a throne that no longer belongs to Greg Sankey’s conference.

SEC football losing its advantage in NFL draft

Until the past few years, the SEC asserted its supremacy in several ways.

For starters, it persistently told you it was better than everyone else. Nobody within college sports mastered the art of messaging (or arrogance) as well as the SEC. 

Then, it backed up that ceaseless bragging with facts — and, a collection of crystal balls. The SEC, during its pinnacle, produced seven national champions in a row.

As a finishing touch, the NFL gave further credence to the SEC’s superiority. Pro franchises loaded up on SEC talent each spring in the draft.

SEC coaches relished this NFL draft success. At every turn, they’d remind you the SEC set the pace for draft picks, proving the conference’s place atop the pecking order.

If athletes wanted to play against the best, if they wanted to prove themselves beyond a doubt to NFL scouts, they needed to be in the SEC, competing within a cauldron of pro-bound talent. That served as a powerful recruiting pitch for SEC coaches, as they pursued blue-chip high school prospects.

Tune in to this year’s draft, though, and you can expect to hear the name of Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza called with the No. 1 pick.

Utah, if you can believe this, has as many or more players projected to go in the first round as Alabama. (Side note: Kalen DeBoer has some ‘splainin’ to do.)

LSU likely will supply only one first-round pick. Georgia could have two or fewer go in Round 1. For SEC new blood Texas, it could be Day 1 crickets, while Texas A&M helps the SEC save face in the Lone Star State.

We’re a long ways from Day 1 of the draft becoming a coronation of Nick Saban or Kirby Smart’s roster.

Big Ten can assert itself in Round 1, Indiana to Ohio State

In the latest mock draft from USA TODAY’s NFL writer Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz, he projected only one SEC player, Auburn defensive end Keldric Faulk, to go within the top 10 picks.

The situation should improve for the SEC later in the first round, with a dozen SEC players projected overall in Round 1. The SEC might fend off the Big Ten, barely, for total first-round picks. But, the Big Ten is projected to be the most-represented conference within the first 15 picks.

That’s reflective of the overall shift occurring in college football these past few years. The Big Ten’s crème de la crème has leapfrogged the SEC’s.

However you slice it, this reflects a notable shift from yesteryear.

Consider the 2020 NFL draft.

That year, national champion LSU produced five first-round picks. The SEC broke its previously established record by supplying 15 of the 32 players selected on Day 1.

The SEC players kept coming after Round 1. The conference supplied 40 selections within the 2020 draft’s first three rounds. The Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 combined for 37 selections in those first three rounds.

Mind you, the SEC was smaller then, too. It did not include either Oklahoma or Texas.

“That’s not going to stop anytime soon, in terms of how strong the conference is,” NFL coach Dan Quinn told the AP, before that 2020 draft, of the SEC’s draft dominance.

To Quinn’s point about the SEC being a long-term NFL pipeline, the SEC paced all conferences in 2025 with 79 draftees, eight more than the Big Ten.

Although still on top (for now) on draft day, the SEC’s margin is shrinking.

In 2021, the SEC had 21 more players drafted than the Big Ten. That year, Alabama supplied six selections in the first round alone, after winning the national championship.

By 2023, the SEC’s draft pick advantage on the Big Ten had shrunk to seven.

Conference realignment influenced the shift. The Big Ten is the nation’s largest conference, spreading from coast to coast. Oregon, in particular, buoys the Big Ten’s draft output and its on-field clout. NIL has something to do with the evolution, too.

The SEC’s talent hasn’t dried up, but it did spread out, and it spread to other leagues. The first round of this draft will be a reminder of that.

Watching confetti fall on Big Ten teams humbled the SEC. Surrendering NFL draft bragging rights, though, would reveal the fuller magnitude of the SEC’s slip from all-encompassing supremacy.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.