Is there any nontrivial problem in the theory of serial algorithms with a nontrivial polynomial lower bound of $\Omega(n^2)$?
There are such problems by time hierarchy theorem. Just take any problem that is complete for a large complexity class. For example, take a problem that is complete for $\mathsf{ExpTime}$. Such a problem will be $\Omega(n^c)$ for all $c\in\mathbb{N}$.

However also note that for problems in $\mathsf{NP}$, there are not strong time lower-bounds in multiple-tape TM model and existence of linear time algorithms for SAT is consistent with current state of knowledge. (In single-tape TM model it is not difficult to show that many problems like palindromes require $\Omega(n^2)$ time but such lower-bounds depend essentially on the particulars of the single-tape TM model.)