It’s been a minute since the SEC claimed a national title, and Nick Saban’s latest appearance on ESPN’s Get Up morning program was another wonderful reminder of that fact.
Discussing whether his former conference has fallen behind the Big Ten, Saban quickly came to the defense of the SEC and “how many good teams you have from top to bottom,” when it comes to defining which league is better. It’s an argument other Power Four conferences, the Big 12 included, have made for themselves for years, but it’s strange to hear from a seven-time national champion.
Saban retired from Alabama following the end of the 2023 season, and not a single SEC program has claimed a title since Georgia in 2022. The league hasn’t actually landed a team in the national championship game since that year, when the Bulldogs blasted TCU 65-7 as the No. 1 seed.
Still, that doesn’t define a league, Saban says:
"Whoever wins the National Championship doesn't define who has the best conference."
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) July 23, 2026
"I think the best conference gets defined by how many good teams you have from top to bottom."
Nick Saban weighs in on the Big Ten surpassing the SEC 🤔 pic.twitter.com/0LFGccJPxv
It’s hard to accept this argument from Saban largely because of how successful the SEC had been in the playoff until the last few seasons. His Alabama teams won three different times (2020, 2017 and 2015) during the playoff era and three more times before 2013; He’d win his first title with LSU in 2003.
That 2016 to 2020 timeline saw the Tide win 65 different games and an SEC title three times; Georgia similarly won 52 games and the SEC East multiple times; LSU won 47 games and pieced together a historic 15-0 national title run with Joe Burrow in 2019.
Today, that same league is 2-8 against the Big Ten, including an 0-4 head-to-head run in the CFP.
Save us the excuses. Play some football, and let the college football playoff – which the overwhelming majority of America loves – determine which conference is producing the best talent. Your schedule should battle-test you for that postseason framework, and arguing strength-of-schedule or how deep one league’s rosters only wastes breath when the ultimate assessment already exists with the CFP.
