Joey Galloway claims the Big Ten is way more comparable to the ACC than SEC right now

Every year college football fans love to debate the sport’s top conference top-to-bottom, even if that conversation usually tends to focus on the Big Ten vs. the SEC. But, at least according to one well-known ESPN pundit, the SEC stands alone this season, and it’s not up for debate.

During the question-and-answer portion of Monday’s Nonstop podcast, ESPN college football experts Kirk Herbstreit and Joey Galloway engaged in just such a debate, only this time the discussion centered around whether the Big Ten was more comparable to the ACC than the SEC this season.

“To me the ACC and the Big Ten are way more comparable than the Big Ten and the SEC,” Galloway, a former Ohio State receiver, said Monday on the Nonstop podcast with Herbstreit. “That would be an actual comparable.”

Galloway’s bold claim sparked a back-and-forth with Herbstreit, a fellow Buckeyes alum who seemed shocked by such a suggestion.

“Wow,” Herbstreit repeated several times. “I’m not going to let that one go by. Holy smokes.”

Herbstreit went on to describe the ACC as “poo” given many of the conference’s traditional powers — Clemson, Florida State and Virginia Tech — currently sit in the bottom half of the league with either overall losing records or a losing conference mark.

“I’m talking top-to-bottom, these last two weeks, the ACC just disappeared,” Herbstreit continued. “You take Clemson and Florida State out of the ACC discussion, and I still look at Virginia Tech as a traditional power and they haven’t been in years, but if you took three of the faces of that conference when it was put together are (now) below .500. That’s like taking Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan and making them all irrelevant. I think the Big Ten is closer to the SEC than the ACC.”

But while the Big Ten’s traditional powers — at least Ohio State and Michigan — are still among six conference teams currently ranked in the Top 25, with the undefeated Buckeyes at No. 1 overall, Galloway cited the back-half of the league for bringing down his perception of the entire conference.

Similarly to the ACC, the Big Ten currently has seven teams with either losing overall records or losing conference marks, including six programs with five or more conference losses already: Rutgers (5-5, 2-5); Maryland (4-5, 1-5); Wisconsin (3-6, 1-5); Michigan State (3-6, 0-6); Penn State (3-6, 0-6); and Purdue (2-8, 0-7). Meanwhile, by comparison, only five of the SEC’s 16 teams have overall losing records, while nine SEC teams were ranked in the College Football Playoff‘s initial Top 25 released last Tuesday night.

“I’m not saying they’re on par (with the SEC) this year, but that’s a strong statement from you,” Herbstreit said.

“Eh,” Galloway replied. “Just this season, … I think they’re closer (to the ACC), just because the bottom-half of the Big Ten is not great.”