Kirby Smart offers theories on the Big Ten's run of dominance

It’s no secret that after three straight national championships, the Big Ten is laying claim to being the kings of college football. Now, everyone, including Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, is wondering why.

How has the SEC gone from winning 13 national championships in 17 seasons (2006-22) to not having a team even reach the championship game since Georgia won the conference’s last title?

During a recent appearance on The Next Round Live, Smart workshopped a few potential theories, starting with conference realignment.

“I can’t figure out what it is,” Smart said of the Big Ten’s dominance. “I just think they have a more competitive conference, like the top of their conference. There’s more good teams. It used to be that Ohio State was good. You know, Michigan was really good, but [Jim] Harbaugh had a great team. Indiana’s good. Like, now they got Oregon. They got a draw. They have an ability to attract good players.” 

Harbaugh’s Michigan was the first to unseat the SEC, as they went 15-0 en route to a 34-13 win over Washington in the national championship. In the final iteration of the four-team playoff, Michigan defeated Alabama in the Rose Bowl, the very team that knocked Georgia out of the playoff weeks earlier in the SEC Championship.

Then there was Ohio State, which, even after a late-season defeat at the hands of Michigan, parlayed the embarrassment into outscoring its opponents 145-75 on the way to a national title. Which Indiana followed up with an undefeated season, beating Alabama in the Rose Bowl on the way.

But Smart isn’t ignorant of the obvious change.

“Now, NIL has a factor, too, for sure, but so does Miami. I mean, so does Florida. People have money,” Smart said. “More people have money. So, I think that the talent is spread out thin, where before the SEC, it was a magnet to talent. The disparity was so great that it was like you couldn’t mess it up. You’d win regardless, and now it’s like, okay, it’s more even.”

Yet, despite Smart admitting that the Big Ten is more competitive at the top these days, he wasn’t ready to fully concede that the SEC’s realignment and scheduling have made an impact.

“Now, the other theory is, and this is one nobody likes to hear, is a lot of SEC coaches say this in my meetings,” Smart said. “They say, ‘They don’t have the grind we do. There’s no way. They play three of their nine games are hard. Their bottom four games are not our bottom four games.’ … So there is a theory that we’re beating each other up, and it’s like the intensity, and it wears you down.”