Gus Malzahn throws shade at Big Ten at SEC Media Day

The SEC is the most powerful conference in college football and throwing shade at the Big Ten is now a mandate.

There isn’t a conference in amateur sports as powerful as the SEC. It’s the conference where mammoth programs like Alabama, Georgia and Auburn reside with God-like figures including Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier.

Teams from the SEC went on a national championship bender, winning the title game for seven consecutive years from 2003-2012. Additionally, for the 15 years the BCS existed the SEC won 8 national championships. Meanwhile, the Big Ten has lay mostly dormant, only being awakened occasionally when Ohio State decides to compete with the big boys of college football.

That was the case in 2014 when the Buckeyes beat Alabama in a semifinal matchup and then downed Oregon in the first title game played under the new playoff format. This is something that has stuck in the craw of the SEC, as while they hate each other they hate anyone who attacks their brotherhood.

Apparently, that’s that Big Ten has done.

First the national championship win by OSU bothered the SEC and now the idea of Big ten schools coming south to recruit SEC players to come north is a point of frustration.

According to Dan Wolken, Gus Malzahn continued to rep SEC pride at Media Day on Monday, as he threw shade at Jim Harbaugh and the rest of the Big Ten and their recruiting tactics.

Malzahn: The chances of a school from up north coming down here and getting a player Alabama or Auburn want is close to zero”
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) July 13, 2015

This all dates back to the controversy where Nick Saban noted that he doesn’t think Satellite camps that the Big Ten sets up in the southern regions of the country — namely SEC country — should be legal. While it’s a broad stroke of hate against the Big Ten, it’s probably directed at mainly two head coaches — Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh.

Harbaugh is doing what Saban has never done — had success in college, left to have success in the NFL and returned to college to have more success at a bigger program.

Saban left LSU a champion, failed with the Miami Dolphins and has re-solidified his legacy at Bama. Harbaugh took Stanford to glory, hopped to the NFL where he took the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl and is now the man in charge of restoring Michigan to prominence.

Naturally, Harbaugh is going to want to recruit nationwide — including in SEC country. All this is doing is ticking off the SEC and setting up a rivalry that could get very interesting between two improbable foes.

More from College Football