Nick Saban Continues to Be the G6’s Biggest Hater
On Thursday, former Alabama coach turned college football analyst Nick Saban decided to critique this year’s College Football Playoffs lineup, and it came out as expected.
While speaking with Pat McAfee on his show, Saban, a true Group of Six (G6) hater, ripped the committee for selecting G6 teams Tulane and James Madison over Notre Dame and belittled them in the process.
“Would we allow the winner of the Triple-A baseball league – the International League, I don’t even know the name of it – would you let them in the World Series? That’s the equivalent of what we do when JMU gets in the Playoff, and Notre Dame doesn’t,” railed Saban.
Now, Saban is partially correct as Notre Dame should have been in based on the rankings leading into the final week of the season.
Yet Saban, a college football traditionalist and one of the greatest coaches in the sport’s history, could have made his point without continuing his hate for G6 programs.
Despite starting his head coaching career in 1990 at G6 Toledo, he understandably favors P4 teams after leading three different programs (Michigan St., LSU and Alabama).
He also fears them in a way as G6 teams have become risky for P4 teams to play for they’re good, many of them getting better thanks to more exposure and recruiting.
Boise St. has been a rankings mainstay despite playing in smaller conferences like the WAC and the Mountain West.
SMU has risen from the ashes of the 1987 “death penalty”, moved from C-USA to the AAC and now competes in the ACC, where it made the CFP last season and upset CFP-bound Miami this season.
And James Madison, while not a traditional powerhouse, moved from FCS to FBS in 2022 by joining the Sun Belt Conference and won the Conference Championship this season.
So while these types of teams aren’t “blue bloods”, comparing them to Triple A minor league baseball teams is wrong.
But disrespecting programs to benefit his agenda isn’t new for Saban.