
A major part of college football is missing at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. On this episode of The Bill and Doug Show, Doug Lesmerises and Bill Landis run through all the ways the Big Ten us superior to the SEC at the top of this draft.
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Bill Landis
Welcome back to the Bill and Doug Show. Doug Lamoris and Bill Landis. We're back home. We were in Indianapolis on Wednesday and Thursday. We are back in Columbus on Friday. But we want to talk a little bit more about the NFL Combine. Bill Landis, We've been writing about it at our substack. Bill and Doug OSU substack.com We did a big Wednesday show for the substack there. We did a Thursday show here on this channel for podcast and YouTube feeds where I think maybe my mic wasn't working correctly and I apologize for that. But I'm coming through loud and clear now.
Doug Lamoris
Sounds great now. Yeah.
Bill Landis
Okay. I'm not sure what the deal is with college football media. I don't know if people are afraid to touch this story, but I think it's time for us to talk about what I still think from a college. We talk about this with the combine a lot. It's, it's an NFL story and a college football story. And the way that NFL media and college football media cover the NFL combine is different. Right? And NFL are there to find out, hey, who are the new guys that are going to be on the teams that we cover? And that's really important. But for college football, there's a lot of other different things that go on that go on. And this story, I don't know why it's gone so under the radar, but I think it's time for somebody to talk about it. I find it disappointing. There's a lot of things in college football these days That I think disappoint a lot of us. But the fact that the SEC is boycotting the NFL combine, I think is a really difficult thing for college football to manage. I don't know if they're doing their own combine or what, but man, I would be great to have those guys there.
Doug Lamoris
Well, I don't think we're. The idea of the SEC doing its own combine, frankly, quite possible. Doesn't they make 12 do its own combine or has in the past, like the last couple years?
Bill Landis
Yeah, well, they sort of do like a combined pro day rather than going to like everybody individual Porter. They all go to like the Cowboys practice facility because that's where everything happens, I think. And they do like a combined one of those.
Doug Lamoris
It's not in lieu of sending any Big Ten players to the NFL combine. It is an addition to.
Bill Landis
Sure.
Doug Lamoris
But I, But I do. Yeah, maybe the SEC will just stop coming to Indianapolis because I couldn't help but notice that, I don't know, there weren't a lot of them, were they?
Bill Landis
I thought this was like the 1984 Olympics, which happened when I was 10 years old. And it was very exciting to watch America dominate in Los Angeles in 1984. But like the Eastern bloc countries weren't there and Russia wasn't there. And so that's what I thought this was then. It's like, hey, look, all the best players at the combine are from the Big Ten and the ACC and Big 12. I, I assumed it was because the SEC guys. Are you. Are you telling me the SEC players were at the combine?
Doug Lamoris
They were. They were eligible to be there. In fact, you did talk to one. I know for a fact.
Bill Landis
I, I talked to one who was in the SEC for one year after he was at Virginia Tech for three years.
Doug Lamoris
Yes, that's right.
Bill Landis
And he's the best player in the sec and he was there for one year and they stole him from Virginia Tech. I am here to just say that if you didn't think the SEC was dead, Sonny Stiles and Arvell Reese dug that grave in Indianapolis. The SEC is officially dead. They are irrelevant. The sport has passed them by. And Andy Staples, our good buddy, and everybody else whose last line of defense about the SEC as well, I guess. Well, I guess maybe we shouldn't even listen to NFL GMs because I just thought their jobs were on the line to pick the best players. SEC has the most players drafted. Irrelevant. The SEC is barely a part of the discussion when you talk about the best players in this 2026 NFL Draft. I don't know if it's a blip. I don't know if it's a trend, but I'm telling you, you could. I. I didn't even ask the SEC guy about any SEC stuff. It was just like, oh, your brother. It's Mansour Delaine, who was at Virginia Tech and then transferred to LSU for one year. It was a very good player. Now his brother Fahim, who is transferring from Ohio State to lsu. I love it. But it is, is it not? Is it not? Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana, national championship, three straight years. The SEC is not even part of the national championship game. Is this not a part of the discussion? And we're going to run through this because, you know, there's a lot of fronts in which this battle is being fought between the north and the south and. And the SEC in the Big Ten. This is what this is like, their strongest, like, last line of defense, and then, like, I don't know what we did. I can't remember the guy at Gettysburg, but didn't he go around the hill and come up the back and shoot everybody when they weren't looking? That's what the Big Ten did to the SEC at the combine today. First, they attacked from the front, right. It was the Harbaugh Day Signetti push at the front, and they just came right at him. And they sort of overran the SEC and then had the Styles Reese, like, go around the back. Like, you sneak over this hill and you shoot their horses right in the. In the back, and they fall down, and then they run away like it's embarrassing. Greg Sankey, he's on vacation. He can't be watching this. Greg Sanke is watching the NFL Combine on the NFL Network with his head in his hands, because you know who the talk of the combine is? Two Ohio State kids from Ohio. That's a Columbus kid, and that's a Cleveland kid doing things people have never seen before. Wait, no. Sunny Styles is from. Is from Georgia, right? And Arvell Reese's Louisiana. No, no, they're not. They're from Ohio.
Doug Lamoris
Sunny Styles is from Columbus, and Arvo Reese is from Cleveland.
Bill Landis
I get up my trumpet and play taps, but they don't deserve it. Just bury them in an unmarked grave. You're dead.
Doug Lamoris
You bestowed upon Ohio State cornerback Davis and Iguinosin on Thursday the nickname the Landlord. Would you like officially to bestow upon Sunny Styles and Arvel Reese the nickname the Gravediggers?
Bill Landis
I like. We're. We're. We're a full calendar Year late on this. Like, can you imagine if we were coming on every week during the college football season talking about Ohio State being like, man, shoot. The grave diggers did to Washington Demon Williams Jr. Sorry, man. The grave diggers got after him. What are we doing? It's so good. It's too good. And it's also too late.
Doug Lamoris
It is, it is. It is a little too late. But you are, I think, touching on something that is correct. And I'm mostly using Andy Staples as my. As my guide here. But Andy, you know, there's. There's Paul Fine Bomb and then there's Andy Staples. Who else?
Bill Landis
They're.
Doug Lamoris
They're the mouths of the South.
Bill Landis
We love Andy. He's a fine fella.
Doug Lamoris
Yeah, he's great. But. But all he was done, frankly. So this was. You weren't on their show. You and Andy were having like, a really entertaining back and forth about this, I think, like two years ago. And Andy was really trumpeting the. Well, the south still has the better players, which, like, out of the high school ranks, you know, by recruiting rankings, it's probably still true, but more of them are going to the north now because the north can. Can pay them to come up there. And, and the Big Ten is. Is seeing an uptick, I think, in. I don't know. Well, I haven't crunched the numbers. Maybe, Maybe you have, comparatively to past seasons, but it seems like there's an uptick for the Big Ten, for the rest of college football relative to the sec. And while the SEC is not winning national championships and, you know, not as much at the top of the sport as it used to be, the one thing I think it still had to hold on to was, well, we're still the NFL factory. And that also feels like it's slipping out of the SEC's grasp right in front of our eyes. And it's great to watch.
Bill Landis
So I will be like, you know, I, I didn't do, you know, it took most of my afternoon to come up, like, with the, The Gettysburg analogy. But so I, I didn't do all the research.
Doug Lamoris
Are we sure the Gettysburg analogy is correct?
Bill Landis
No, not at all. I, I grew up like 90 minutes from Gettysburg. I'm sure I got all that backwards. I don't know. One time I went and they, like, they have a house you can visit it visited as Gettysburg. And it's like, look, this is where people lived. And it's like there's a bullet hole in the wall. And they were like, look, a bullet from. Came in their house. And went in the wall.
Doug Lamoris
And like, you can still see the bullet hole.
Bill Landis
And that's all. I remember that in the gift shop.
Doug Lamoris
It's a good gift shop. I am, I am familiar with Pickett's Charge, but that was the Confederacy and it went poorly. So I don't know if there was another famous charge.
Bill Landis
This is the NFL combine is Simpson's charge. It's Ty Simpson. And then it's just like, is anybody else coming with me? No, there's nobody. I got. I got some stats that'll blow your socks off. Bill Landis, John Wilder and Brett McMurphy were tweeting about this on the Twitter machine, if you still Follow Twitter. Brett McMurphy had the number of total players invited to the combine by conference. First sec115. Big 1083 acc50. John Wilner then did put it in the old calculator. Invites per School. SEC 7.2 Big Ten 4.6 ACC 2.9 Big 12 2.8. So there's still. Right. This is, this is how it happened with the national championships, too, which is like the Big Ten attacked from the top and, and, and started like winning there. So the SEC back on its depth. And we've discussed on this show and in other places how that actually is a fallacy. The SEC depth is not any bigger than the Big Ten depth is just perceived that way. But everybody's given up at the top. So this is where like, Andy Staples would come in. Not here to like, I mean, Andy does a great college football show with her great friend Ari Wasserman, and they have really good college football discussions. But, like, if you wanted to make a point for the sec, you'd go there for the moment still, right? Like, total number of invites. Total number of invites per school. And I do think, for instance, I didn't have time to break it all down again. You know, coming up with nicknames takes a lot of time. So I. But for instance, it's not only like, it's not only an Ohio State discussion in this draft, right? And we're going to go through that a little bit. But I do think when it comes to like Rutgers and Maryland and Northwestern and Purdue and so like, they probably from a raw talent perspective in terms of this sending guys on. Right. I think that that's where maybe the Big Ten is not keeping up quite as much. But also those Big Ten schools get rated, right? So it's like, oh, I don't know how many Purdue guys are at the NFL combine, but I know Dylan cen there he started his career at Purdue. Max Claire is there. He started his career Purdue. Dion Burks is there. He started his career Purdue. And like, it's not exactly Purdue's fault that they are now at Oregon, Ohio State and Oklahoma. Right. But. So I do think there, there is. I mean, the numbers are the numbers. We're not trying to refute numbers here. The SEC still has a greater volume of players at the combine.
Doug Lamoris
Sure. I, I wonder if that gap has shrunk at all from years past. My hunch is that maybe it has a little bit like the gap between the Big Ten and the SEC specifically. Maybe it hasn't. I don't know. Maybe that'll still take some time. Maybe it'll never happen, I think. But what's happening at the top of the draft is noteworthy. But yeah, I don't, you know, geography matters. Where the players come from still matters. As much as, like, Nick Saban was making jokes and I made one earlier in the show about the Northern schools being able to pay people to leave the south to come to the North, I think that's a reality. But there's also still a lot of really good player players in the south who are going to stay there, care, and always keep the SEC with a, with a very good talent level. Like, I don't, I don't think you and I are denying that fact.
Bill Landis
Ohio State always has great players. This is not a surprise. Ohio State, this has sometimes been the outlier of the Big Ten, the outlier of the north, the one school in this part of the country, in this conference that can compete. But like, I do just think, like, if a Georgia player had done what Sonny Styles the linebacker did on Thursday at the NFL combine with his testing, if, if an LSU or a Tennessee or a Florida or a Texas or a, an Alabama player was doing what Arvell Reese did, you know, running a 4, 4, 6 at that size and that kind of thing. I think, like, we, like, you would never hear the end of it and like, you're not hearing the end of it now. Like, people are going bazonkers for what especially Sonny Styles did there. But again, like, I think it is noteworthy because I do think you can make some things sometimes, like with the money in the north, like, is. Is the coaching better? Is the development better? Sometimes, right? Is like, are you, are you grinding out like three stars and turn them. But also, so, so I do think sometimes if you are making the raw talent argument, it's like, okay, raw talent is nice, but like, let's play a football game. And let's, like, see who. Who has, like, the better plan and scheme and execution and. And who are the players who are doing everything they have to do to maximize themselves. And maybe that's where the Big Ten in the north have an advantage. But in terms, this is just raw. This is raw talent and athleticism. And I know it's not new for Ohio State, but it's still. It's two Ohio guys. What do you think it would have been? Would it have been any different? Or is it, like, is everybody there? It's all cool. Sonny is getting his flowers. If Sonny Stiles was from Gwinnett County, Georgia, and wearing a Bulldog hat after he did what he did, would people be going even more nuts?
Doug Lamoris
I think it's possible they'd be going nuts in a different way. Right? Like. Like, a guy from any school does this. You're gonna see a lot of people talking about it. But talking about it, I think primarily from the NFL perspective. Right? Like, boy, can't wait to see what happens when he gets there. This guy's an athletic freak. Can you believe his numbers compared to some other guys who have gone through the combine? And that's happening for. For these two guys from Ohio State, and it should be. I do think if it were, you know, if either one of those guys were from Georgia or Alabama, you'd get that in addition to. This is what the SEC is about. This is why the SEC is so hard every week. You probably have the SEC's social media machine getting behind players who post numbers like this. Like, I don't. I don't know that I've seen it. Like, Ohio State, of course, is trumpeting again, because they should. It's a. This is, like, many years the NFL combine is a commercial for Ohio State, but I don't know that, like, the league embraces it in that kind of way, or if, like, the people who cover the Big Ten take it and run with it in the way that. I think some of the people who cover the SEC would take it and run with it if those guys were SEC players.
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Doug Lamoris
so
Bill Landis
I'm looking at the Big Ten Twitter account. We got a lot of swimming. We got a lot of track. Indoor track. Let's see the pole vault hurdle. And congratulations to all those athletes. They deserve their flowers. Let me double check. What's the date? 27th. This was the 26th. There's the guy working out. There's the Ohio State Michigan women's basketball game. That was super exciting and certainly deserves attention. Okay, there's Brutus kind of doing the worm on the floor somewhere. There's a tennis thing. No Sunny Styles. No NFL combine coverage on the Big Ten conference Twitter account. We cover the Big Ten, right?
Doug Lamoris
We're talking, we do. There's, there's also a specific Big Ten football Twitter account that is run by the league that hasn't posted, hasn't posted a tweet in, in two days now. It has, there is some combine stuff, right? There's a thing here from, you know, Indiana having a program record, nine invites to the combine, but that appears to be it.
Bill Landis
We would have a show if you had a show. He had a show that trumpeted this kind of stuff. Oh, wow.
Doug Lamoris
Caleb Williams went to a basketball game. That's cool.
Bill Landis
Oh, congratulations to him.
Doug Lamoris
He definitely played in the Big Ten.
Bill Landis
Big Ten legend Caleb Williams. So like this, like, this is the discussion, this is why the Big Ten network should hire us to do a show twice a week. Because, like, this is the discussion. Because I do, like, it's all connected. But this is the next step of this. And there's a couple things. Like there's, there's a thing I said I'm going to blow your socks off and I will in a moment. This is more basic, right? Let's look at the, the top guys who are rated in the draft. This is going into the combine, two of the best draft people out there, Dane Brugler and Daniel Jeremiah. Dane Brugler of the athletic. His top 50 players, I drew a line of the top 14. His top 14 was eight guys from the north, four from the south and two from border states. But more importantly, seven from the Big Ten, three from the Big 12, two from the the ACC and one from the SEC. So his top 14 players. The Big Ten has a seven to one edge over the SEC. The only SEC player in his top 14 is Monsor Delane, who is a one year transfer from Virginia Tech and is from the DMV.
Doug Lamoris
Can we run it is an edge. Can we, can we run through the northern guys? I'm just curious how many of those guys are transfers? Yeah, for the sake of being fair,
Bill Landis
let, let me do the Daniel Jeremiah thing. Let me, let me use Daniel Jeremiah because I, I drew the line a little bit differently there. And again you draw lines and stats for your advantage. Come on, what are we doing here? Top 20 for Daniel Jeremiah, 10 from the Big Ten, three from the Big 12, three from the ACC, two from the SEC, one from the Mac and one Notre Dame. And the 10 Big Ten players represent six different Big Ten schools. There are four guys from Ohio State, two from Indiana, and then one each from Washington, USC, Penn State and Oregon. So like again, Ohio State is carrying a lot of the load there. The national champion Indiana Hoosiers have quarterback friend of mine, Fernanda Mendoza, number one, your guy Omar Cooper is in Daniel Jeremiah's top 20. So like we're just saying, right? It's not, it's not only Ohio State and especially when you know this would be back in the day. It's like if you had a list like this, there would have been a million Bama guys on it. Right? But we're just so the idea that it is 10 to 2 for the SEC in Daniel Jeremiah's top 20 is quite a thing there. There is a little bit more specific things I want to get into. But let's go through your thing that you just said and talk about who's transferring in and who came straight to their school and is down the top 20. Ready? Okay. Fernando Mendoza, number one, Indiana quarterback. I'll say it and then you say what the guy is.
Doug Lamoris
Transfer from Cal. From Cal. What I'm mostly interested in here is is there any transfers from the south to the north that are pumping up the North's numbers. But I suspect. Okay, so please, let's continue.
Bill Landis
Number two, Jeremiah Love, running back, Notre Dame. Son of the North, Number three, David Bailey, I think. But defense, Phoenix counts as the North. It's all Northern people who live there. David Bailey, Texas Tech, defense event transfer From Stanford, Big 12, Arvell Reese. Number four, Ohio State.
Doug Lamoris
Homegrown Buckeye, Sunny Styles.
Bill Landis
Number five, Ohio State.
Doug Lamoris
There you go. Transfer from Alabama.
Bill Landis
Ah, homegrown Buckeye, Sunny Stiles, everyone's favorite. Nick.
Doug Lamoris
Wait, did you say Sunny or Caleb? Sorry, I thought I said transfer Alabama, because I thought you said Caleb Downs. Sonny Styles is the homegrown.
Bill Landis
Yeah. Reuben Bain, Miami, not sec.
Doug Lamoris
At Miami the whole time.
Bill Landis
Carnell Tate, Ohio State.
Doug Lamoris
At Ohio State the whole time.
Bill Landis
Monsor Delane, LSU
Doug Lamoris
Tech, desperate for help, gets a transfer from Virginia Tech.
Bill Landis
Caleb Downs. You can say it now.
Doug Lamoris
There we go.
Bill Landis
Transfer from Alabama, Ohio State, transfer from Alabama, one year at Alabama. Makai Lemon, usc was there the whole time, right? Yeah, there the whole time. Then guy Oni, Interior, offensive lineman at Penn State, there the whole time. Francis Mauinoa, offensive lineman from Miami at
Doug Lamoris
Miami his whole career.
Bill Landis
Jamon McCoy, the second SEC guy here is a cornerback from Tennessee. Do you know what his deal is? Transfer from Oregon State, Son of the North.
Doug Lamoris
I'm glad you said that.
Bill Landis
Came from Oregon State. So, like, you know, again, congratulations to Tennessee for getting him, but that's just a fact.
Doug Lamoris
The PAC 12 had to die for Tennessee to get your mom. McCoy.
Bill Landis
Yeah. Spencer Fino, Utah, there the whole time. What's this guy's name? McNeil Warren, the. The. The DB from Toledo.
Doug Lamoris
I'm assuming he was the whole time.
Bill Landis
I don't think he started at Georgia, went to Toledo. Kenyan Sadiq, Oregon, tight end at Oregon the whole time. Jordan Tyson, Arizona State, receiver, I believe,
Doug Lamoris
at Arizona State the whole time.
Bill Landis
Denzel Boston, Washington, receiver at Washington his whole career. Omar Cooper Jr. Indiana, receiver at Indiana his entire career. And Akeem Mezador, Miami, defensive end, career in the north at West Virginia, Right?
Doug Lamoris
Yes, Jordan Tyson is a transfer, but he was a Colorado.
Bill Landis
So it's actually like there's. There's more guys who started in the north and went south than there are guys who started in the south and went north. The other guy, the only guy that, like, you were curious about. Right. We're being fair about if we're trying to make points. You were being fair about it. The only guy who would fit the category that you were talking about is Caleb Downs. Alabama to Ohio State, right?
Doug Lamoris
Yes. He's the only one. Yeah.
Bill Landis
None of the rest of this is the north. Praying. Oh, the poor little South. The north with all their industry Money is taking their players wrong. It's actually the other way around. Because here's the other thing. Daniel Jeremiah, suck on this sec. Cram it until you can't cram it anymore. Daniel Jeremiah's top 20 players, 10 of them are from the Big Ten, two of them are from the SEC. And the tour that are from the SEC started their careers at Virginia Tech and Oregon State.
Doug Lamoris
Yeah, they did. Yeah.
Bill Landis
Oh, my God. What is happening? There's nothing. There's more. There's more coming along these lines. But, like. Because here's the thing, too. It's like that idea. We're gonna get to a point here. It's not that, like, this is reflecting. Not that, like, oh, well, yes. The. The Big Ten is taking advantage of the new rules and using unlimited free agency in the transfer portal for every single player to like their money from Nil. To scoop up all these talented guys who would, you know, staying in the south otherwise. It's. It's actually the SEC that is relying upon NIL and the transfer portal. All within the rules, of course, but to replenish their talent. Because actually, when you look in this draft class and the elite players, the number of guys who were developmental success stories of. I started at an SEC school and I finished at an SEC school and I'm awesome. Is. Is. I don't want to say non existent because like, Ty Simpson from Alabama at quarterback is that story. Garrett Nussmeier at LSU is that story. But they're not. They're not the top 20. Yeah, like, there's. There are not guys like that in the top 20.
Doug Lamoris
Bill, I'm gonna pull up not. Yeah, I'm trying to think like Monroe. Feel it. Freeling at Georgia would be one
Bill Landis
Keldrick fault. Maybe at Auburn. I don't know what his deal is. I can only look up so many SEC guys before my.
Doug Lamoris
That's right.
Bill Landis
Eyes glaze over, no offense.
Doug Lamoris
So much
Bill Landis
so. So that point is made. Dane Brugler, top 14. We are 7 to 1, big 10 over SEC. Daniel Meyer. Daniel Jeremiah, top 20. We are 10 to 2, big 10 over the SEC. I looked at the mock draft database, which is. Jen. Just a projection. It's a consensus where a guy's going to be picked like 11 positions. Right. In. In. In. In football. Really? Like quarterback, running back, receiver, tight end, offensive tackle, interior offensive line, guards and centers. Right? That's six. Edge rusher, defensive tackle, linebacker, corner safety. That's 11. Okay.
Doug Lamoris
That's right. I did count. Count it. That was 11.
Bill Landis
At how many positions is the SEC projected to have the first guy taken? Of those 11, the SEC will have the top guy at a position. How many of the 11?
Doug Lamoris
One.
Bill Landis
Virginia Tech transfer Mansoor Delaine coming to save face for the sec. He transferred. He's at Virginia Tech. He transfers to lsu, which stinks so bad they fire their coach. But yet his talent is saving the SEC from a potential goose egg here. How many Big Ten. How many is the Big Ten projected to have the top guy drafted out of position?
Doug Lamoris
5?
Bill Landis
6. Quarterback, receiver, tight end, linebacker, safety and interior offensive lineman. ACC 3. Offensive tackle, defensive tackle and edge rusher. Notre Dame gets running back with Jeremiah Love and the SEC gets Monsour Delay in a corner. So it's six to the Big Ten, three to the acc, one independent and one sec. Embarrassing. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing.
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Doug Lamoris
That is pretty embarrassing. Yeah. Was that the thing that was going to blow my mind?
Bill Landis
Nope. One more coming because that's.
Doug Lamoris
Because I'm pretty surprised by that.
Bill Landis
You know what else Greg Sankey's not going to be watching this year? The first round of the NFL draft.
Doug Lamoris
Yeah. He'll be at dinner.
Bill Landis
He'll be a dinner. Long dinner. It's like, you guys want to go. You guys want to get dessert? I'm not really. No. Let's get dessert. Let's get dessert.
Doug Lamoris
Yeah.
Bill Landis
You guys want to go get some drinks after dinner? Don't you have time for a drink? I have time for a drink. You guys want to go like late night bowling? The pins are fluorescent. Greg, the draft. No, it's fine. It's fine. They don't need me. Let's go bowling. Greg Sankey searching for things to do with his life other than watch the SEC be embarrassed on national TV because they don't have any good players. That's an exaggeration slightly. Just to talk about this a little bit more specifically, at quarterback Fernando Mendoza. Everyone knows he's going to be the first pick overall. Cal transfer to Indiana. The SEC does have the number two and three quarterbacks according to the mock draft database. Alabama's Ty Simpson, LSU's Garrett Desmire. I'm going to try to be fair to the SEC as we talk about this. Running back. Top five running backs. How many of them are from the North?
Doug Lamoris
Oh, four.
Bill Landis
All of them.
Doug Lamoris
All five.
Bill Landis
All of them. Jeremiah Love from Notre Dame, number one in the mock draft database. Jadarian Price from Notre Dame, number two in the mock draft database. Jonah Coleman from Washington, number three. Emmett Johnson from Nebraska, number four. Nick Singleton. Penn State, number five. Here's the guy.
Doug Lamoris
Singleton's fifth.
Bill Landis
He is.
Doug Lamoris
That's a bad running back. Sorry.
Bill Landis
It is not a great running back class. Listen to this though. The top two SEC running backs in the mock draft database are two guys who, no offense to them, I've never heard of. Mike Washington from Arkansas and Seth McGowan from Kentucky. They are sixth and eighth. Do you know they. They were one year transfers to the SEC. Do you know where they were playing in the same backfield in 2024?
Doug Lamoris
Let's take a wild guess and say
Bill Landis
Arkansas State, New Mexico State. They were a two headed running back monster at New Mexico State in 2024. Mike Washington started his career at Buffalo and spent three years there. Seth McGowan was at Oklahoma, then was at community College. Wound up at New Mexico State. If the SEC didn't get two guys from New Mexico State for a single season, they wouldn't have any running backs projected in the top 10 of this draft. That's the SEC. The first SEC guy. The first SEC running back in the draft who started and ended his career at the same sec School is Le'Veon Moss at Texas A and M who's projected to be the 244th pick in the draft. The SEC. No running back talent. It's. It's not an affront to anybody. It's just numbers. I don't know what to tell you. I'm sorry that the facts. Facts hurt. I apologize. Tight end Kenyan Sadiq from Morgan's number one. Eli Stowers from Vanderbilt's actually number two. Great for him. Three and four at linebacker after the two Ohio State guys. R.L. reese and Sunny Styles are C.J. allen from Georgia and Anthony Hill from Texas. Great. So they have three and four. Safety Caleb Downs is number one, Emmanuel McNeil Warren's number two from Toledo. Three is Dylan Thieman. So I don't know where the SEC safeties are. Corner Monsor Delane is one. Jaman McCoy from Tennessee is two. But again, they both transferred in. It is just like the. The tackle stuff. It's Miami and Utah are the top two guys. Peter woods is the number one defensive tackle from Clemson. Interior offensive line, the top two guys are Vanguioni from Penn State and Emanuel Pregnan from Oregon who transferred from usc. David Bailey and Reuben Bane are the top guys at edge. I will say I do think the best. Best. The projected best punter in the draft is from the sec, so I don't want to leave that out.
Doug Lamoris
The sec, famously known for its situational football.
Bill Landis
Look. Look out around draft time for a Greg Sankey punting tweet because that's all they've got left. I think it's the Florida punter. Good luck to him. I hope he gets drafted. And Greg Sankey hopes so too, because they have to have something to talk about on the SEC network around the draft. Otherwise they're just going to run that. Right? The color coded bars.
Doug Lamoris
Yeah.
Bill Landis
The Big Ten network should be run. Dave Redson should have his shirt off during the draft. Right. Like I hope they better be. He better be pouring a beer over Jerry DiNardo's head. Meanwhile, the SEC network is a test pattern during the entire draft. Draft. Because there ain't nothing to talk about. Sankey.
Doug Lamoris
They're just gonna. They're just gonna show old drafts. SEC Draft Classic. Welcome back to the 2008 NFL Draft.
Bill Landis
Wait, in 1966. Joe Namath. Good luck. Good luck to the SEC. All right, so that's. Here's the one that I wanted to blow your mind with the most.
Doug Lamoris
Okay, go.
Bill Landis
Listen, guys. Transfer. You have to acquire talent however you can. And at least now it is within the rules. And there are still people circumventing rules in. In some kind of way. As long as rules exist in anything, there will be people circumventing them. But when you bring things more out into the open and you allow players to be paid, you reduce like the, the. The need. You reduce the volume. Right. You reduce the impact, I think, of the rule breaking. We're seeing that obviously across college football. So this does not mean if you are a transfer, you are no lesser you are not lesser than. Right. There's too many great transfers out there. It's completely normalized in college football. So. Right. It can be hard to. To. To recruit and develop and keep skill. Talent. Right. Can you. Can that. Do you think that can be a hard thing to do in modern college football? Yeah, we.
Doug Lamoris
Yeah. Yes. Are we talking about the Mac?
Bill Landis
No, I'm just saying, like, in general, like. Like, for instance. I mean, just because, for instance, Carnell Tate was recruited, developed, and was successful at Ohio State and was at Ohio State the whole time doesn't mean that everybody should be able to do it. Right. So Carnell tated Ohio State. Just because USC did it with Makai Lemon doesn't mean that the SEC should feel bad if they can do it. It's hard to do. Just because Washington did it with Denzel Boston and Indiana did it with Omar Cooper, and USC did it with Jacoby Lane, and Clemson did it with Antonio Williams just because there are examples like that. It's just a smattering. It's a handful of guys. The SEC should not feel bad about this because. Bill, I looked on the mock draft database, and I went through the entire list of receivers because. Receivers. Right. This is a position at which you can showcase your athleticism, is it not?
Doug Lamoris
Yeah. This. Yeah. Yes, absolutely.
Bill Landis
Would you not. And I think sometimes SEC players and SEC teams more often can showcase that athleticism at positions like defensive tackle, at positions like edge rusher. Right. Where sometimes they are just, like, unique bodies, unique types of skills that are very difficult to find. And we've seen great SEC players over the years. So I went through Bill and I just said this position, though, when you think about the fact that, you know, the top four guys in the mock draft database are Big Ten, Big 12, Big Ten, Big Ten. The first SEC guy is Casey Concepcion at Texas A M, for instance. Right. And. And Casey Concepcion, he is the twelfth man. He who. What's Texas A M? The Red Rockers. What are the nickname? The Aggies.
Doug Lamoris
They're the Aggies.
Bill Landis
The bonfires. He's been building bonfires since he was five years old because he grew up loving Texas A M and he wanted nothing more in his life than to be an Aggie. Right. Is that not. That's the case. He can accept the own story.
Doug Lamoris
No, no, no, it's not.
Bill Landis
No. They threw a bag at him from NC State.
Doug Lamoris
He's a transfer from NC State because
Bill Landis
he was at NC State. And everybody was like, that guy's gonna make a lot of money in the transfer portal. And Texas A and M was like, we'll do it. So. So that's the first SEC rece. Then you get to Omar Cooper, Malachi Fields, a transfer from Virginia to Notre Dame. Again, it's not only in the south where they, they take advantage of transfers. How many receivers do you think I had to go down on the mock draft database list before I found the first SEC receiver on the list of draft prospects who was coming out of school at the same SEC school at which he started his career? For instance, if I had to do this for the Big Ten. Right. Again, you have to. I would have had to go one deep to Carnell Tate because the best receiver in the draft is how Ohio State did this. So to find the equivalent of Carnell tate in the SEC, how many receivers deep did I go? 20, 51.
Doug Lamoris
That's a lot of receivers.
Bill Landis
I got the Chris, Chris Holton at LSU, who is projected as the number 354 player in this draft, which is 100 picks away from being drafted. So I think it is very possible that there is not going to be an S. A receiver drafted from the SEC who started his career at the SEC school, that SEC school, for instance, the way Carnell Tate at Ohio State, Omar Cooper at Indiana, and Denzel Boston at Washington did at their Big Ten schools. So that's. That's all I'm saying. So, like, it is like, is this. This is like, this is the one. Your socks. I don't know if you're wearing socks at home. We did a whole show.
Doug Lamoris
Not anymore.
Bill Landis
Do you wear, do you wear pants at home? And you're like, nope, the pants come off the minute I get in the door. I'm going into basketball shorts. I don't know if the socks come off as well, but they are. They got blown right off your feet with that revelation.
Doug Lamoris
They did. There aren't even that many SEC receivers, period. I'm looking, I'm looking at the consensus big board now, but yeah, consider. Consider my socks completely blown off. Yeah, that's. I don't know. What do you think?
Bill Landis
When.
Doug Lamoris
When, like, if people said like sc like SEC speed, like.
Bill Landis
Right.
Doug Lamoris
We know what that is. That's more of like a defensive line thing or is that more of a receiver thing?
Bill Landis
I feel like it's Percy Harvin, right?
Doug Lamoris
Yeah. Okay. Because I thought so too. But then I wanted to, like, stop myself because maybe it's like, maybe it's more about edge rushers.
Bill Landis
But we, when we did our 25 year war, you can still find it 25 year winter, a 25 year war, 25 year winter about the battle between the north and south and college football primarily between the Big Ten and the sec. We referenced SEC speed and we thought that that much of the birth of that came out of the way it was talked about in the sport came out of Florida's win over Ohio State in the national championship game after the 2006 season, which could be attributed to Derek Henry and Jarvis Moss as Russians. But also certainly a component of that was Percy Harvin as a dynamic guy with the ball in his hand. And now it's one of those things. Ohio State had Tedkin Jr. In that game. That guy's fast player in college football. So it's not like, but like still it was a thing. It was a thing. And like it's not a thing in this draft because you know what's SEC speed in this draft? And this is one of these things where the Big Ten marketing arm needs to like not be taken the week off. Orville Reese and Sonny Styles are Big Ten speed. Like where's the poster where there should be eight year old football fans across the Midwest and the north and Big Ten country? They should make a poster that says Big Ten speed and it's Sunny Styles and Arvell Reese running at the NFL combine. Let's crank up the machine, man. Like this is again the thing we talk about all the time that the south and the SEC are so much better at creating id, you know, narratives. I hate that word but they create narratives around the realities and the Big Ten doesn't. Big Ten speeds, Big Ten speed. Ah man, I want to talk about Big Ten speed. Right? That's what they should be talking about. Because yeah, I do think to your point, like some of it's not just receivers, but it's exactly what Arvell Reese and Sunny Styles showed at the combine on Thursday.
Doug Lamoris
It is. I've been looking at edge rusher since you've been talking and like it's not, it's not nearly the same thing as receiver but like so Kendrick Falk is a top rated SEC edge rusher on the consensus big board and he has spent his entire career at Auburn. Right behind him is Cassius Howe from Texas A M who started his career Bowling Green and after him is Zion Young at Missouri who started his career at Michigan State.
Bill Landis
So like again, so like I
Doug Lamoris
do
Bill Landis
you not think that there is some belief we might even start of the show with it and we maybe even have talked this way in the past, that the portal in nil. You know, like SEC backups can transfer north out of high school. The north can offer money to entice players from the south to come north. We believe that that is part of the revival of Big Ten in northern college football. And then we're looking at this and it's actually like it's the SEC who is working that transfer portal to make sure they have good players. Because at the. At the top of this NFL draft class, I think you can say the SEC has not developed elite talent in the 2026 NFL Draft. I think. I think we're like 85 of the way. And we would do some more research before we said it. Now I'm not gonna. You can do it. I'm gonna say it right now. I did enough research. The SEC has not developed elite talent for the 2026 NFL Draft class.
Doug Lamoris
I think that's fair. Yeah, I think, like what. What would be the counter argument to that? And we're just talking like. And you can say like, well, you know, there'll be guys coming up in 2027. Great. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about this draft class. They're not. There is a utter lack of homegrown developed elite talent coming out of the Southeastern Conference.
Bill Landis
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Bill Landis
Let me give you the top five SEC receivers.
Doug Lamoris
And by the way, let's just look early. Look at next year's Draft. The guys who are going to like, whatever, right? The ship for the SEC are like, from Texas, who's barely in the SEC, right?
Bill Landis
That's true. Top five receivers from the SEC as projected for this draft. Number one, Casey Concepcion from Texas A&M, spent one year there, transferred from NC State. Zachariah Branch from Georgia, spent one year there, transferred From USC. Chris Brazil from Tennessee, spent two years there, transfer from Tulane. Jeremy Bernard, Alabama, spent two years there, transfer From Washington. Dion Burks, Oklahoma, spent two years there, transfer from Purdue. And then like the, the one that like SEC people could say, hey, wait, that's not fair. Brennan Thompson from Mississippi State. This is his third school. He spent a year at Texas and two at Oklahoma, and now he's at Mississippi State. But when he committed to Texas, they weren't in the sec. So it's like now it's like, well, he was in the SEC the whole time. It's like, no, the three schools that he were at are. Was at are now in the sec. But he didn't commit to the SEC out of high school. Kevin Coleman, Missouri, Jackson State, Louisville, Mississippi State. Now he's at Missouri. Kendrick Law is the first guy actually who, like, would be like a commit to the Sec. 1 one year at Alabama. Now he's at Kentucky, spent three years there, and he's that guy. So, I mean, like, I'm just. But he's behind a guy from North Dakota State. So I'm just like, this is just, just. It's just information, Bill. It's just. And it doesn't mean. I mean, who knows, maybe like the draft's different than the draft projection. But I just want everyone to be aware in this week as we talk about the NFL combine, that the SEC is bereft of talent. That's all.
Doug Lamoris
That's all we're saying it took. Yeah, we should. This could have been a one minute podcast. You could have just said that off the jump.
Bill Landis
Yeah, I could have just like opened my front door and yelled it down the street. Nobody would even had to tune into the podcast at all.
Doug Lamoris
Well, that's right.
Bill Landis
You know, it is a front in the battle and it is something that we will continue to monitor. Listen, there's like a bunch of SEC guys like in the 20s and 30s and 40s for this. Right? It's like I drew it at 14 and 20, because then like, you get into a thing and it's like it may end up. And I certainly will track it. And I've tracked it for the last several years, like first round first top three rounds, like north versus South, Big Ten versus SEC. The SEC might wind up up with more first round draft picks in the Big Ten. The Big Ten's definitely going to have more first round draft picks in the top 20. But you go through some of these big boards and it's like players 26 through 32 are all SEC guys and it's like, okay, they're gonna make a late run and sank. He's gonna come in from his garden after trimming his bushes and be like, oh, do we go 27th? Oh, we went 27th and have a little party and blow a blow like New Year's Eve thing. But like the, for top 20, Big Ten.
Doug Lamoris
We were at the combine as you mentioned, and we were sitting on radio row. And I won't say who said this because, you know, they weren't on the record or whatever, although they probably have said it on the record. I just overheard a fairly prominent person in the NFL talking about this draft and he said this first round stinks because there's normally like 20ish players that have a first round grade and this year there's like 12. But if you look, but then if you look at the mock drafts, it's like, well then where are those 12 from? Because it's not, it's not the SEC. There will be 32 first round picks, but players with an actual first round grade, it could be that there are none from the sec.
Bill Landis
Right? When we're talking elite, when we're talking impact, when we're talking game changers, right, you're talking about like those four Ohio State guys. You're talking about Kenyan Sadiq at Oregon. You're talking about Vengayone at Penn State. You're talking about Jeremiah Love at Notre Dame. You're talking about Fernando Mendoza and maybe Omar Cooper at Indiana. Like, that's who you're talking about. Like super impactful. Like you really feel the value. Man, that value's in the north. That values in the Big Ten.
Doug Lamoris
Yeah.
Bill Landis
Tell Revson.
Doug Lamoris
All right, well, if he's shirtless, then what's this? Is it a tattoo across his chest?
Bill Landis
He's got a shaving of his chest hair? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a real thing. It's a real thing. It's a real thing. And, and I don't think it's going away. I think there's, I think there might be like. And I don't know if there's even that you have to explain it. I think this is maybe both a trend and a Blip. Because it's so stark. It's like, oh, from, like going forward, when we look at the top 20 players of the draft, is it going to be 10 to 2, big 10 to SEC? No. But if you look in the past and the average, and we've done a lot of research like this over the years, like, if the average would have been, well, the SEC would have had, you know, a 7 to 3 advantage, something like that, or. Or, you know, 9 to 6 advantage or something like that, I think we're going to end up back closer to even, which is all really our point ever is. Is that right? As much as I tell the SEC to cram it, it's not really about that the Big Ten is better than the sec. It's more about that the SEC is not better than the Big Ten. And it's not as much about that the north is better than the South. It's that the south is not better than the north. And they've lived that way justifiably for 20 years. And it's over. It's absolutely dead. And this is just. It's just sunny styles and, And. And Arvel resheveled the final dirt. All right. We had a good time at the combine.
Doug Lamoris
Yeah, they did. They did. We did have a good time. Sorry, I keep glancing at my television because. Because the defensive backs are running 40s as we're recording this. Ohio State has had three players run four days. They all ran four, four, six.
Bill Landis
Oh, Caleb Downs ran 446, too.
Doug Lamoris
No, he hasn't run yet, but David is. David Osin did, and he ran 4, 4, 6.
Bill Landis
David, who measured 6, 2. Right around a 4, 4, 6. Books.
Doug Lamoris
Yeah, transfer. Hey, transfer from the SEC. Let's be fair, right?
Bill Landis
Let's be fair. He's from New Jersey.
Doug Lamoris
He's from New Jersey, but he's a transfer from the sec. Yeah.
Bill Landis
Went to Mississippi for a year, was like, get me out of here. And then came to Ohio State for three years. But we're being fair. We're being fair. We're being fair. That's like. That's Greg Sankey. Greg Sankey's like, can we get like a half an hour documentary together for the NFL draft about Davison Igbosin's one year at Ole Miss? Because it's the best thing about this draft for the sec. The SEC network congratulates Davison Igbignosan on his surprising first round selection. Go Rebels.
Doug Lamoris
Developed here
Bill Landis
kind of this much. New Jersey born, Ohio State. Developed. He went on a family vacation to ole miss for 12 games, and they're having a parade for him. Pete Golding's like, Davidson, we got. We gotta have. You come talk to the team, man. Come on.
Doug Lamoris
You are one of the great rib come back home.
Bill Landis
Simultaneously, the seventh best Ohio State player in this draft and the greatest Ole Miss player of all time. All right, that'll wrap it up. We invite you to join us on this YouTube channel, this podcast feed. Whenever we put up stuff, we try to do it a couple times a week here in the off season. Spring football's around corner. We'll be doing a lot more. Sometimes it's national and Big Ten college football. Sometimes it's Ohio State. Over on our substack, billandougosu.substack.com we're right in Ohio State. We're talking about Ohio State. We're doing a big Wednesday show every week over there. More often than not, about 80% of the time, we're doing a Sunday show. So come find us. We'll talk some ball and have a good time. For now, he's Bill Landis. I'm Doug Lamoris, and that was the Bill and Doug Show.
Big Ten Crushing SEC in Elite Talent at the 2026 NFL Combine
Release Date: February 27, 2026
Hosts: Doug Lesmerises & Bill Landis
This episode dives headfirst into the evolving college football landscape, focusing on the 2026 NFL Draft Combine and how the Big Ten (notably Ohio State) has leapfrogged the SEC in turning out elite NFL prospects. Bill and Doug put a humorous, competitive, and stats-heavy spin on what they view as a seismic shift in conference supremacy—taking direct aim at SEC bravado and southern college football narratives, and celebrating the Big Ten's moment in the limelight. The discussion is laced with analogies (Gettysburg, Olympic boycotts), playful SEC jabs, and calls for better Big Ten self-promotion.
[01:38 – 03:48]
[03:55 – 06:40]
“I am here to just say that if you didn’t think the SEC was dead, Sonny Stiles and Arvell Reese dug that grave in Indianapolis. The SEC is officially dead.” (Bill Landis, 05:02)
[09:26 – 14:05]
[17:02 – 17:41]
“This is why the Big Ten network should hire us to do a show twice a week. Because, like, this is the discussion.” (Bill Landis, 17:41)
[17:39 – 24:09]
“Daniel Jeremiah, suck on this SEC. Cram it until you can’t cram it anymore… 10 of them are from the Big Ten, two of them are from the SEC. And the two that are from the SEC started their careers at Virginia Tech and Oregon State.” (Bill Landis, 23:35)
[26:27 – 33:03]
“If the SEC didn’t get two guys from New Mexico State for a single season, they wouldn’t have any running backs projected in the top 10 of this draft.” (Bill Landis, 31:13)
[36:01 – 41:20]
“...There should be eight-year-old football fans across the Midwest… with a poster that says Big Ten speed and it’s Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese running at the NFL Combine. Let’s crank up the machine, man. This is… Big Ten speed.” (Bill Landis, 41:00)
“Just bury them in an unmarked grave. You’re dead.” (Bill Landis, 06:44)
“I can’t remember the guy at Gettysburg, but didn’t he go around the hill and come up the back and shoot everybody when they weren’t looking? That’s what the Big Ten did to the SEC at the combine today.” (Bill Landis, 05:11)
“There’s more guys who started in the north and went south than there are guys who started in the south and went north… The only guy would fit [South-to-North]...is Caleb Downs. None of the rest of this is the North praying…the North with all their industry Money is taking their players—wrong. It’s actually the other way around.” (Bill Landis, 23:13)
“Where’s the poster…that says Big Ten speed and it’s Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese running at the NFL combine? Let’s crank up the machine, man…they create narratives around the realities and the Big Ten doesn’t. Big Ten speeds, Big Ten speed. Ah man, I want to talk about Big Ten speed.” (Bill Landis, 41:00)
| Time | Segment | | -------- | -------------------------------------------- | | 01:08 | Start of main show; combine experience recap | | 01:38 | Noticing the SEC’s underwhelming combine presence, Olympic analogy | | 03:55 | “Gravediggers” moment – Styles & Reese destroy SEC narrative | | 09:26 | SEC’s “depth” myth and transfer talent discussion | | 17:02 | Lack of Big Ten social media/commercial hype | | 17:39 | Dane Brugler/Daniel Jeremiah big board breakdown | | 23:08 | Elite prospect transfer analysis | | 26:27 | Position-by-position NFL draft prediction analysis | | 31:13 | SEC’s running back situation—the New Mexico State duo | | 36:01 | Big Ten Speed: narrative and marketing talk | | 41:20 | Edge rusher transfer patterns | | 48:08 | Draft projections and closing thoughts on conference talent paradigms |
Conversational, humorous, and irreverent, Bill and Doug blend deep statistical research with playful SEC-baiting and passion for Big Ten/Ohio State success. They use analogies (Gettysburg, bowl games, team funerals), create on-the-fly nicknames, and issue challenges for better northern football storytelling. Stats are thrown like jabs—with intent to provoke, prove, and entertain.
Bill:
“The SEC has not developed elite talent for the 2026 NFL Draft. I think we’re like 85% of the way… I did enough research. The SEC has not developed elite talent for the 2026 NFL Draft class.” (41:49)
Doug:
“There is an utter lack of homegrown, developed, elite talent coming out of the Southeastern Conference.” (42:46)
If you want to understand why this year’s NFL Combine feels like a page turning in college football—and why Big Ten fans should be shouting it from the rooftops—this episode is for you.