As World Cup ends and SEC football media days begin, the specter of recent Big Ten dominance looms

Around the same time Rodri carried the World Cup trophy down the plane steps and onto Spanish soil, Oklahoma’s Brent Venables stepped to the podium inside a conference room at the Tampa Marriott, the first coach scheduled to speak at the SEC’s football media days. Goodbye fútbol, hello football. Unintentionally timed, it was nonetheless a well-choreographed calendar flip. The SEC, of course, is the league that bills itself as college football royalty, the one where even the conference room WiFi password exalts its praises: 2026IJMM, as in It Just Means More. It still means more, evidenced by the logoed fans who gathered outside the SEC Network set to rally for what is essentially just a bunch of press conferences. Actual kickoff is still a good month away but there stood folks in team gear, raring to get things going.