Nick Saban Talks Conference Realignment, “Mega-Conferences” During SEC Media Days
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The hottest topic in the college football world this offseason has been the potential shakeup of Power 5 conferences. Naturally, one of the biggest figures in college football, Alabama head coach Nick Saban, was asked at SEC Media Days for his thoughts about the SEC potentially expanding again as a result of these shakeups.
Saban started his answer with a light-hearted diss on the reporter who asked the question, saying that he doesn’t like to answer hypothetical questions. However, he had some interesting things to say about where conferences might be heading in the future.
“I do think there is some tendency to, as current events sort of indicate, that mega-conferences may be something in the future. It’s not my job or my role to understand the dynamics of what’s in the best interest of college football, the SEC, or other conferences in terms of how they expand” Saban said.
Continuing on mega-conferences, Coach Saban had this to say: “I do think if we move toward the mega-conference, that whole thing about competitive balance is going to be in question. And I’m not here to say we should have it or we shouldn’t have it, but if we have two twenty-team leagues, how’s that going to impact all the people that are not in those leagues?”
For just the SEC, Saban went on to praise the league for adding Texas and Oklahoma last July. There also have been plenty of rumors this offseason about the SEC adding teams from the Big 12 and ACC not even a year after snagging two of the top programs in college football.
However, these rumors don’t worry Saban, who had only positive words for the current state of the SEC and its competitors.
“We have fourteen teams in our league for the next couple of years and we have some really, really good teams in our league. It’s a very competitive league. You’ve got to be on task each and every week that you play, and that’s kind of what we’re trying to stay focused on.”
Good to hear that the rumors of new opponents in the SEC doesn’t change the mindset of Coach Saban or the Alabama football program. As far as the rumors themselves, we may not hear the end of them for a while as the offseason and SEC Media Days continue on this week.