While the Nebraska football team didn’t get to the College Football Playoffs or take on an SEC team in their bowl game, the Huskers still held serve during a year when, for some reason, certain talking heads and analysts decided to take some pot shots at the Big Ten.
Of course the reason they were taking shots at the Big Ten is because they were made that South Carolina, Alabama and maybe even Ole Miss didn’t make the playoffs while Indiana did. That was most obvious on the night the the Hoosiers got run off the field against Notre Dame.
The crying over the SEC getting shunned while the Big Ten got four teams in the bracket reached a fever pitch over the next few days. And then something really funny happened. The Tennessee Volunteers got absolutely dismantled by Ohio State.
The Big Ten shoves the SEC narrative down haters’ throats
Then there was USC beating Texas A&M, another team that people were talking about as far as the College Football Playoff until late in the year. Then there was Oklahoma losing to Navy. Not a Big Ten team but still really funny.
And on New Year’s Eve, South Carolina was sunk by Illinois and Alabama was beaten down by a 7-5 Michigan squad. And suddenly, even SEC homers started realizing perhaps all that complaining and whining looked silly.
In all, the Big Ten, the conference that some thought was no better than the Big 12 or the ACC was 4-1 against its Power Conference rival. And with Notre Dame taking on Georgia and Arizona State taking on Texas this week in the College Football Playoffs, it’s possible the SEC is about to get thoroughly embarrassed.