Woah! It’s raining riches in college football. Yes, wins are nice. But would you mind if you got to fatten your pockets from the wins? Definitely not, right? However, you need to be lucky for that. And right now, who’s a better example than Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame? They seem to have all the luck in the world. After all, they have been able to find themselves among the other frontrunners while being ‘independent.’ But still, the Big 10 turns out to be luckier, leading the race and racking up 28 million dollars. And what about the SEC? We still need to be patient. 

Now that the Bowl games are also coming to an end, let’s get back to business. Right now, college football is one step closer to crowning a champion. But along with the luster of the crown, we must not forget the heavy cash flow that came before it. As confirmed by Front Office Sports, “Every team that made the College Football Playoff semi-final has earned $14M in payouts for their conferences. As an independent, Notre Dame’s win over Georgia just put the Fighting Irish at $14M, too—all for themselves.” And as we can see, the Big 10 conference comes off with a heavier pocket as compared to the other conferences. 

Right now we have four semifinalists. As per FanDuel, the No.6 seed Penn State Nittany Lions are a 1.5-point underdog against the No. 7 Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl matchup. The other two are Ryan Day’s No.8 Ohio State Buckeyes, coming off as a 5.5-point favorite facing off the No.5 Texas Longhorns. That makes two teams in the Big 10, Ohio State and Penn State. So as the calculation says, Big 10 conferences were lucky to rack up 14 million dollars twice that made up to $28 million. 

Meanwhile, Freeman’s Fighting Irish got lucky. Even though they come off as independent, they were not barred from the opportunity to get the same amount of riches. According to Front Office Sports, “Yet, Notre Dame is able to keep the entire $14 million earned for the team’s trip to the semifinals thanks to the program’s status as an independent.” Now it’s turn for the SEC. 

The Longhorns just pulled off a thrilling 39-31 double-overtime victory against Arizona State, the Big 12 champs, in the Peach Bowl. And thus they’re bringing home the heavy cash! With Georgia out of the picture, Sarkisian and his team are now the last hope for the SEC.

Steve Sarkisian is not intimidated by Big 10 moments  

Well, Sarkisian has already earned the SEC’s trust. The Longhorns have accomplished one of the hardest tasks in rebuilding a college football powerhouse. Even though the limelight has been on the Big 10 conference this season with two programs making it to the semifinals, the SEC has been able to keep itself afloat. That’s because of Sarkisian.

Yes, that man has guided his program back to the national stage. Now that they have got back their power, it’s time for them to act on it. Already the B1G programs like Penn State and Ohio State come off as invincible with $28 million. But the SEC must be thanking Texas for swapping from the Big 12 to join them. Even Sarkisian knows how he is the last flagbearer, as now the other teams have lost power. He has already started to prepare.

The Longhorns HC knows that the next progressive step means putting away College Football Playoff foes. Amidst the Big 10 spotlight, Steve Sarkisian still runs strong with full confidence. “We’ve been in some pretty big environments, some pretty cool arenas, some pretty big games…But the moment at this point doesn’t seem too big.” Let’s see if Texas can make the SEC proud.