Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia rips Big Ten, Pops off about SEC supremacy

As a guest on the "Bussin' with the Boys" podcast with hosts Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, Vanderbilt quarterback took a shot at the Big Ten.

The two NFL veterans asked him about his transfer portal experience, both in moving to the Commodores after seasons at New Mexico Military Institute and New Mexico State, then again after a Nashville judge granted him another year of eligibility late last season.

Suddenly the former no-star quarterback was a hot commodity. He told Compton and Lewan, former stars at Nebraska and Michigan, that he passed up offers from the Big Ten and a $4 million offer from another SEC school.

Pavia told the hosts, “You want to play with the best – you don’t want to play with the Big Ten. … You ignore those calls. You know that.”

Reporter Nick Schultz wrote about the bald-faced diss for On3 Sports. “But you’ve got to think about this, too,” Pavia said. “The SEC is, like, nothing. Like, okay, the Big Ten, you have Ohio State, Oregon … the SEC, it’s like week after week. You’re going to get beat on. The Big Ten, you’re not gonna get beat on with the Purdue, Nebraskas.”

Pavia famously engineered a 40-35 upset of No. 1 Alabama last October, but he and the Commodores also lost to Georgia State, while the Tide went on to lose to 6-7 Oklahoma and playoff-bound Tennessee.

Big Ten Michigan dumped Bama in the Reliaquest Bowl 19-13., dropping them to 9-4 in Kalen DeBoer's first year succeeding Nick Saban.

Last season the Big Ten won its second straight national championship, put four teams in the College Football Playoff and two in the semifinals. They were 2-0 against the SEC in the playoffs, 3-1 in other bowls.

The SEC is a fine conference with an enviable record of success in national championship games and in sending players to the NFL, but as long as the league continues to play November game against Furman, Mercer and The Citadel those claims of a "gauntlet" ring hollow.

Pavia provided some thrills for Commodore fans last season leading them to their first winning season since 2013 while throwing for 20 touchdowns and rushing for 800 yards, but Vandy still lost early in the year to Georgia State in Atlanta 36-32, winning only three games in SEC play.

While it's true Purdue has been downtrodden for a number of years, Nebraska is a longshot playoff contender this season that finished with the same record as the Commies. At FanDuel, the Cornhuskers' over/under is 7.5 wins, Vanderbilt's 4.5.

Every conference has its also-rans, and the top half of the Big Ten has fared pretty well against the SEC recently. The portal has been a big equalizer with talents like Caleb Downs, Julian Sayin and Justice Haynes flowing northward.

Besides, it's a bad look to claim supremacy based on the achievements of others.

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