Nick Saban Peddles False Narrative That The SEC Has Way More Depth Than The Big Ten
The gap in depth between the two conferences is greatly exaggerated.
Nick Saban is once again peddling the tired old narrative that the SEC is a conference full of world-beaters, while the Big Ten can’t even sniff that conference’s depth.
The former Alabama Crimson Tide coach appeared on the "Pat McAfee Show" to talk about this week’s college football slate. Within the discussion, Saban made the argument that the Big 10 can’t compare with the depth of the SEC.
"I don’t think the Big Ten is really that deep…It’s not like the SEC that has eight or nine teams that can beat you, there might be three or four teams in the Big Ten that can beat you," Saban said. "Alright is not really what I’m talking about…There’s a lot of good teams in the SEC."
The last part of the statement isn’t wrong, the SEC does deserve its flowers for producing some good teams this year. Ole Miss, Alabama, Georgia, Texas A&M, Missouri, and Tennessee all look solid.
Meanwhile, the Big Ten is sitting on a few legit teams of its own: Ohio State, Oregon, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan. All of these teams boast talented rosters that will give anyone a fight.
That’s almost the same amount of "good" schools in each conference; everyone else in both conferences isn’t that great. But in Saban’s mind, there is no comparing the two. Why is that?
It’s because everyone associated with the SEC believes that their conference is miles ahead of everyone else. Even after the Big Ten outplayed the SEC in last year’s bowl season. Even after some of the conference’s better teams are barely squeaking by low-tier teams in their non-conference schedule.
This obsession over SEC teams manifests itself drastically in the AP Top 25. Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt put it best when he said that the SEC teams are given the benefit of the doubt in the polls because the conference is viewed as so much more difficult than every other one.
Again, the SEC certainly has some really great teams at the top of their conference, and not every team in the league is bad. But for Saban to insinuate that no other conference can possibly keep up with their depth is nonsense.