ROSEMONT, Ill. -- The Big Ten Experience, an interactive museum on the first floor of the league's offices, doesn't contain a Nick Saban voodoo doll or a dartboard with the SEC's logo in the bull's-eye.
I checked.
This may disappoint our friends in the South, including my ESPN colleague Paul Finebaum, but the Big Ten isn't completely obsessed with the SEC. To be clear, the Big Ten is acutely aware of the SEC's recent success in football, an unprecedented run that largely coincided with a Big Ten nosedive. Big Ten officials, including commissioner Jim Delany, understand that the Big Ten and SEC are, by far, the richest, most powerful and most popular conferences in college sports.