Uh oh.
There are few discussion points in college football that get fans riled up quite like Big Ten and SEC comparisons. Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez added some lighter fluid and a giant ball of lint to that fire before Tuesday’s Capital One Bowl loss to Georgia.
“I think the Big Ten, talent-wise, is a lot better, and the defenses in the Big Ten are better than SEC defenses,” Martinez said via the Lincoln Journal-Star. “This was supposed to be one of the top defenses in the SEC, and we pretty much did anything we wanted against them.”
Those are some bold statements, so I did a little research and number-crunching to see if Martinez’s comments really held water. What I found can be broken down into three basic retorts:
Example 1
Example 2
And, last but certainly not least...
Example 3
(Clowney beheading Vincent Smith in GIF format)
Now, jokes aside and in fairness to Martinez, both Michigan and Nebraska were in positions to win their bowl games against SEC opponents in the fourth quarter, as was Wisconsin against Stanford in the Rose Bowl. Had a few plays gone differently, it could have resulted in a nice showing by the Big Ten on New Year’s Day (no, we’re not counting Purdue).
Still, Jadeveon thinks that’s a Clown statement, bro.