The Big Ten Conference recently commemorated its reign as the king of college football by releasing a t-shirt that highlights its three consecutive College Football Playoff national championships. It’s a simple gray shirt with “B1G TRIFECTA” emblazoned above the logos of its championship trio: Indiana (2025), Ohio State (2024), Michigan (2023).

It’s just the latest example of ways the Big Ten continues to rub dirt in the face of the SEC, which hasn’t won a national title since 2022 — the second of back-to-back CFP titles for Georgia. That ended a run of SEC dominance that saw the conference win six of eight CFP national championships between 2015-22 and four straight before the Big Ten flipped the script.

Even ESPN’s Paul Finebaum — known as the “Mouth of the South” — has reluctantly acknowledged the Big Ten’s reign as college football’s top conference. Despite that admission, Finebaum knows the SEC still has several serious national championship contenders, and recently named a handful that he believes could ultimately knock the Big Ten off its pedestal.

“I think if you’re practical, you have to look at who are the best teams in the SEC coming back. And I think it’s likely Georgia with Texas on the same level. I think either one of them are capable, depending on circumstances,” Finebaum said Monday during his weekly appearance on WJOX’s McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning radio show in Birmingham. “I don’t know beyond that. Texas A&M is a little bit of a wildcard. I think LSU is a Playoff team. I don’t think LSU is capable of making that run, but I think LSU is definitely a playoff team. Alabama, I’m not confident in right now.”

Both Georgia and Texas are once again expected to field two of the sport’s most talented rosters top-to-bottom, both of which return several multi-year starters. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that both are led by second-year starting quarterbacks Gunner Stockton and Arch Manning, who are among the Top 10 preseason Heisman Trophy favorites. Beyond that, though, Finebaum is far less confident with other SEC powers, including Alabama, which faces a pivotal offseason entering Year 3 under coach Kalen DeBoer.

But given the obvious turnover taking place in the Big Ten, including 2024 champion Ohio State losing significant talent to the NFL and Indiana moving on from reigning Heisman Trophy-winning QB Fernando Mendoza, there’s plenty of reason to believe 2026 could be the SEC’s year. IT just needs to get the job done.

“I boldly said last year — and, by the way, I said it because I believed it — the SEC would win (the 2025 national championship). I thought Georgia and Texas had the best chance, and I still think they do,” Finebaum continued. “But I wonder about the Big Ten. … It’s a little bit difficult. I don’t think there’s that super team (in the Big Ten) next year. I don’t think you can also predict an Indiana situation. So, I feel like, after a very long and meandering answer, there are at least two (SEC contenders) and maybe one or two more.”