When describing Brian Kelly, two things are certain. He is a good football coach, and he loves to make bold statements. At the recent SEC meetings, Kelly said, " The Big Ten right now holds it on the SEC,” Kelly said. They’ve won the last two national championships, OK? That’s the reality of it. We want to get challenged in that regard ..."
Kelly was talking about his support for an agreement between the SEC and the Big Ten that would have every SEC football team play one regular-season game every season against a Big Ten team. The idea has merit, especially financially, but that advantage is diminished by Kelly's claim that the SEC has something to prove. Ten of the B1G's teams won seven or fewer games last season. Maybe four SEC teams would gain something by beating one of the 10. By comparison, ten SEC teams won eight or more games last season.
Kelly's argument is tainted by recency bias. The flaw often leads to bad long-range planning decisions. B1G teams have won the two most recent National Championships. The Alabama Crimson Tide lost to one of those champions in overtime of a Playoff Semi-Final. Texas lost in the other semi-final in the same season, and the Longhorns also lost in last season's semi-final.
Discarding recency bias reminds that an SEC team has made eight of the 11 National Championship Games in the Playoff Era. Six of those championship games were won by an SEC football team. A sensible claim is that the Big Ten still has some catching up to do.
SEC Football vs. Big Ten scheduling
Greg Sankey described achieving an SEC-Big Ten scheduling agreement as a "long road to hoe." There is almost no chance that Sankey could accomplish his goal of a nine-game SEC regular season conference schedule and also mandate an annual SEC vs. Big Ten game for each SEC team.
Maybe Brian Kelly should go forward on his own. Kelly has no games against a Big Ten team on LSU's schedule going out to 2032. Alabama Football, by comparison, has games scheduled against Wisconsin, along with two games each against Ohio State and Minnesota. The Crimson Tide also has a pair of games scheduled against Notre Dame and other Power Four teams.
Brian Kelly has also predicted a National Championship for LSU. An experienced coach like Kelly should know talk is cheap. Ed Orgeron said the 2025 season is "the highway or no way" for Kelly, and the only 'highway' result would be a national championship. Kelly had best stay focused on LSU rather than speaking for all SEC football teams about some kind of disparity with the Big Ten.