When the flagship program in the league loses the GOAT coach, not surprising there is a step back. But, the SEC continues to recruit better than the B1G, still in the south where the most recruits are. Has NIL/Transfer portal/CFP-12 driven parity? Sure has and you know I have advocated for that here even though it was against my best interests. But the SEC isn't going anywhere.
As for the SEC drop being staggering, I would still argue we were a better top to bottom conference than the B1G. The B1G's top teams proved they were better than the SEC this year, no denying that. But the B1G still lacks depth. You have a lot of terrible teams mid and down, whereas the SEC was much stronger mid and down.