Michigan's emphatic NCAA tournament win over Alabama reinforces Big Ten's takeover of SEC's mantle

CHICAGO — Off the field, the future of college athletics is being shaped by the ongoing battle of wills between the SEC and the Big Ten. From the format of the College Football Playoff to what the rules should be around NIL and tampering, there is significant disagreement, hurt feelings and massive egos unwilling to give an inch. But on the fields of play that matter most, there’s no question who’s winning the battle in the new era of college athletics.

It’s the Big Ten’s world. And in this NCAA tournament , they’re delivering a humbling to the once-mighty SEC. Just like football.

“College basketball has been cyclical forever,” Michigan basketball coach Dusty May said after his team delivered a second-half knockout to Alabama and ran away with a 90-77 victory in the Midwest regional . “Hopefully this is a long cycle for us in the conference. I think now that the playing field has been leveled out as far as finances and things like that…” May, who spent three years in the SEC as an assistant at Florida, didn’t quite finish the thought.

He didn’t have to. As the SEC grew into the nation’s dominant athletic conference through the first two decades of the 2000s, the Big Ten had little ability to answer outside of complaints and cope. Its insistence on being the league that followed rules — aside from an Ohio State scandal every now and then — would allow university presidents to give each other pats on the back.