The Big Ten and the SEC are the considered the top two conferences in college football and the two most valuable conferences in terms of media/television rights. The two conferences have dominated the TV ratings this season. After Oklahoma and Texas join the SEC, the gap between the Big Ten and SEC will widen.

I also think there is some similarities in the conference structure of both conferences. Both currently consist of thirteen public state universities and one private university with the private university in a major market in close to the geographic center of the conference. Both conferences have one dominant football power that seems to tower over the rest of the conference that the rest of the teams seem to struggle to keep up with. Both seem to have an upper tier of conferences that make money for the conference and draw in viewers and a lower tier that probably collect money off the upper tier.

So I have roughly matched up each Big Ten school with a corresponding SEC school. Oklahoma and Texas are not included. You can read this as "Ohio State is the Alabama of the Big Ten or Alabama is the Ohio State of the SEC" and so on. Obviously if you like the SEC school you are matched up with it is a complement and if you don't it's an insult. Same for the SEC schools. But someone had to be insert name of school you don't like.

Ohio State = Alabama
Michigan = Auburn
Penn State = Florida
Wisconsin = Georgia
Michigan State = Texas A&M
Iowa = LSU
Nebraska = Missouri
Northwestern = Vanderbilt
Illinois = Tennessee
Indiana = Kentucky
Maryland = South Carolina
Minnesota = Arkansas
Purdue = Mississippi State
Rutgers = Mississippi

I think most of these are self explanatory but let me know if you are not sure. Or feel free to argue or change any of them.

It would be IMO harder to do a Big Ten - ACC matchup because there are more private schools in the ACC. For the Pac-12 there are only 12 schools so two schools don't get matched up and there are fewer states involved. At the current time, both the Big Ten and SEC have members in 11 states and have three states with two members (Big Ten: Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, SEC: Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi).

My list:

“Beyond A Reasonable Doubt”
Alabama - Ohio St
Vanderbilt - Northwestern
Tennessee - Nebraska
Kentucky - Indiana

“Clear and Convincing”
South Carolina - Minnesota
Florida - Michigan
Georgia - Michigan St
Texas A&M - Wisconsin
LSU - Penn St
Auburn - Iowa

“Preponderance of the Evidence”
Missouri - Illinois
Arkansas - Purdue
Mississippi - Maryland
Mississippi St - Rutgers

(11-25-2021 10:57 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  My list:

“Beyond A Reasonable Doubt”
Alabama - Ohio St
Vanderbilt - Northwestern
Tennessee - Nebraska
Kentucky - Indiana

“Clear and Convincing”
South Carolina - Minnesota
Florida - Michigan
Georgia - Michigan St
Texas A&M - Wisconsin
LSU - Penn St
Auburn - Iowa

“Preponderance of the Evidence”
Missouri - Illinois
Arkansas - Purdue
Mississippi - Maryland
Mississippi St - Rutgers

I agree with the Nebraska/Tennessee comparison. Teams that were good in the 90s and have the money to be good again someday. A big deal in their respective states, but pretty irrelevant to the rest of the country.

I was going with Nebraska and Missouri being former Big 12 schools and geographic outliers to the conferences but I like the comparison as well to the schools formerly being good and not as good now. Illinois/Missouri also match up well being border states similar to Indiana/Kentucky. Illinois/Tennessee were my initial pairing because they are state universities in the same state with the conference's private schools. Illinois also is much worse that they were in the past.