This is an opinion column.
The SEC has a new daddy, and it’s a football coach in Indiana.
And when I say Indiana, let me be clear. I don’t mean Notre Dame.
That would be bad enough, but this is so much worse.
The militaristic coach at formerly woeful Indiana University has made it his new job to smack around football down South as he were the Great Santini come to life.
I can’t think of anything more devastating to the ego of Southern college football.
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti entered the SEC vs. Big Ten preseason battle royale on Wednesday and bent the league down yonder over his bony knee.
As a proud Southern writer, I feel debased just typing out Cignetti’s slander. I can’t imagine what Big Al has been going through this summer.
Cignetti’s screed this week was almost as brutal as the Hoosiers 38-3 beat down of Alabama in the Rose Bowl.
Why is the Big Ten superior to the SEC? In Cignetti’s words, “We don’t run a hype machine in the Midwest. We believe everything is earned, not given. When we fall short, we say we fell short.
“We don’t cry a river and whine and complain, all right? And that’s why we’re the best.”
The Great Santini has spoken, indeed.
It’s tough getting slapped around by your daddy, but give the SEC credit for remaining brave.
Said commissioner Greg Sankey at SEC Media Days: “Southeastern Conference football remains the second most-watched sports property in the United States, trailing only the National Football League,’’ he said, going on to add, “Our football programs draw an average of 80,000 fans per game. That’s our average number. This was the stat of my summer. That is the highest average attendance of any sport in the world.’’
You tell him, commish!
Seriously, does anyone hate the Southeastern Conference more than Cignetti? It’s like the guy finds sadistic pleasure in giving the SEC the business at every hour.
Personally, I blame Nick Saban.
Cignetti chose to coach at an obscure lower division school (IUP) rather than stick around with Nick Saban at Alabama. Now Cig is drunk on power in the Big Ten and he has been on an all-time bender since publicly paddling Alabama.
I guess the beatings will continue until morale improves.
And we know Indiana isn’t going to shut up anytime soon. Have you seen the Hoosiers’ schedule to begin the season? Indiana doesn’t play Ohio State until Oct. 17. The six games before the Buckeyes: North Texas, Howard, Western Kentucky, Northwestern, Rutgers and Nebraska.
No wonder Indiana doesn’t run a hype machine. Absolutely no one cares about any of those first five games and that includes Indiana fans. Indiana at Nebraska has the potential to be mildly interesting only because … well … see for yourself.
Here’s Nebraska’s games before getting Indiana: Ohio, Bowling Green, North Dakota, Michigan State and Maryland.
The Big Ten is feeling tall these days, but those opening schedules are pathetic. Or should we say petit as in Petitti.
Who the heck knows anything anymore, though. Maybe Oregon or Penn State or even Rutgers will win the national championship this year. If Indiana can do it, then why not? Three different Big Ten schools have won natties over the past three seasons and it feels like the whole league is about to catch fire after the Hoosiers’ historic success.
Spend money; win games. That’s the formula, and the Big Ten is using it to race past the SEC.
And if there’s anything I’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that the schools up north still hate the South in an unhealthy way.
Ohio State students bragged about winning the Civil War after trouncing Tennessee in the 2024 CFP, and that was just the beginning. The schedules remain weaker in the Big Ten, but the War of Northern Aggression being waged by commissioner Tony Petitti is inflicting serious damage to the psyche of the South.
His hateful numbers don’t lie either.
Petitti used Big Ten Media Days to take shots at the SEC with a devastating stat. The Big Ten has won four games in a row against the SEC in the College Football Playoff and, on top of that, the Big Ten has 11 wins by seven different teams in the 12-team playoff era. The SEC has five.
Or, as Petitti noted, “More than double the next-best league.”
The reason? That’s simple.
As some dirty hack pointed out this week, the Big Ten has better coaches than the SEC. Tough to admit, but true. Still, I’m not sure that the Big Ten is better than the SEC. In fact, I’m pretty confident that the SEC remains a pinch of salt deeper than the Big Ten.
But doubt is rushing into the cracks of the foundation like seawater during a storm.
Cignetti is the hurricane, and the Gulf just got battered again.
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