The ever-changing landscape of college football got kicked into overdrive when the SEC announced the additions of Texas and Oklahoma in 2024. With the addition of two new programs comes changes to the yearly conference schedule, a topic that has drawn plenty of ire from coaches and fans. That topic will be one of the many discussed during the SEC spring meetings this week in Destin, Florida.
On Tuesday, Alabama head coach Nick Saban met with the media and offered his thoughts on what he'd like to see schedule-wise moving forward.
"I think whatever happens, happens," Saban said. "I think there's so many things that probably go into this in terms of eight games versus nine games, including TV contracts and things that are way beyond my scope of visibility. I'm sure a lot of those things are going to factor into it but still, I'm still always of the opinion that we should play all Division 1 games, and I've said this for years. So whether there's 60 teams in the Power 5 conference or 70 teams or however many there are, it's better for fans, it's better for strength of schedule that we play all Power 5 games.
"However we get to that, I think that's the best thing. I think one of the more difficult things with going to nine games is you know we've tried to schedule two out-of-conference Power 5 games to try and improve our strength of schedule over the next seven, eight, nine, 10 years and if we go to nine games we'll have to unwind that. My deal was to always play more SEC games because we couldn't get other people to schedule. Now I think there's more people in tune to scheduling so having to balance is the most important thing."
The Sooners and Longhorns joining the conference coincide with the start of ESPN's 10-year, $300 million football TV contract and the recent expansion of The College Football Playoff from four teams to 12. A boost in TV ratings coupled with the NCAA's recent move to allow athletes to profit off of name, image and likeness has caused a pseudo "pay-to-play" model according to Saban.
While Saban shared his hopes to have a strictly Power 5 schedule, his main concern revolves around the parity in college football. While he argued NIL has skewed the competition balance, he offered a solution citing college football should use the NFL model when it comes to playing players.
"Unionize it. Make it like the NFL, If it’s going to be the same for everyone," Saban said. "I think that’s better than what we have now. What we have now is we have some states and some schools in some states that are investing a lot more money in terms of managing their roster than others. I think this is going to create a real competitive disadvantage for some in the future."
Saban noted the NFL's use of the salary cap as a way to ensure a competitive balance and noted that similar rules can be put in place for the college game.
However, he also noted one caveat between the college and professional game.
"The big mistake that people make is college athletics is not a business," Saban said. "People say it’s a business. It’s not a business. It’s revenue-producing. ... Nobody takes a profit. All the money gets reinvested in other opportunities for other people, whether it’s facilities, whether it’s scholarships, whether it’s opportunities for people to play. If we continue down this road, are we going to be able to continue to have those opportunities? I think those are all good questions somebody probably ought to answer."
