Urban Meyer Identifies Two Reasons for Big Ten's Dramatic Identity Change

The Big Ten is on top of college sports. With a third straight CFP title in football, the first basketball NCAA Tournament title in the league since 2000, and a women's hoops title also in hand, the conference is writing the standard on dominance. And one of the former big personalities of the league weighed in on the reasons for the change.

Urban Meyer led Ohio State to a national title in 2014, and was one of the top coaches in the nation during his time in Columbus. Meyer has since retired from coaching and in his new role as an analyst for FOX Sports, he dived into the reasons for Ohio State's rise in a conversation on The Triple Option podcast.

Meyer's take on the Big Ten

Asked by Rob Stone what had changed about the Big Ten, Meyer stated, "Investment and competitive spirit."

"You've got to give a lot of credit to the investment in the programs in the Big Ten," said Meyer. "In 2012, that was not the case. It was not. The stadiums were not that difficult, the opponents-- there were some great players, but not a lot of them."

Meyer concluded that after the shift in the league "there's draft pick after draft pick after draft pick." "I'm not just talking about Ohio State, all of them," noted Meyer.

Meyer admitted that he felt that his Ohio State program "was a big part" of the shift in competitive culture. He talked about chasing Nick Saban's outstanding Alabama teams during his time in Columbus.

"The Big Ten is war ready now when they get to that final game and they've won the last three of them," said Meyer. "It's a phenomenon."

The Big Ten's Run of Improvement

After Ohio State's 2014 national title, the SEC won six of the next eight national championships (with Clemson winning the other two). During that run, the only Big Ten appearance in the title game was Ohio State's 52-24 loss to Alabama in 2020.

But now it's the SEC that has missed the last three national championship games, and the Big Ten not only has managed three championships, but has featured three different teams winning those championships. The spread of the Big Ten out West with the addition of UCLA, USC, Washington, and Oregon was a controversial move, but it has paid dividends to the league.

Can the SEC counter?

The question that Meyer's comments open is how the SEC can attempt to retake control of college football. With coaching changes across many of the top programs (Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M, etc), the SEC is certainly not just rolling over and giving up. Will a responsive round of investment and competitive spirit shift the advantage? Not if the Big Ten has anything to say about it.

Curt Cignetti and Indiana's title run add another chapter of Big Ten dominance to the recent story of college football. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images