Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Saban at pinnacle
Bear Bryant not college’s GOAT
TAMPA — It has become the popular premise this week to put an “if ” before Alabama coach Nick
Saban’s name and a “then” after it.
IF Nick Saban beats Clemson, THEN he ties Bear Bryant as the greatest college football coach of all-time.
This logic is inherently flawed for two key reasons.
First, it assumes that having the most national championships (Saban went into Monday night with five, compared to Bear’s six) is the paramount factor in determining the Greatest Of All-Time (GOAT). Personally, I always thought Bobby Bowden, even though he only has two national championships, deserved GOAT consideration because he created a dynastic program at FSU where there was nothing before. He not only put FSU on the map; he drew the map. In contrast, Alabama was winning national titles under coaches like Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas long before Saban and even Bryant arrived.
That said, I realize I will
probably never win the Bowden argument, which brings me to the other major piece of flawed reasoning: That Saban needed to win on Monday night in order to tie or surpass the Bear as the GOAT.
This is preposterous. Even before Monday night, Saban’s five national championships in today’s era is much more impressive than the Bear winning six in his era.
If you don’t believe me, listen to Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who played at Alabama and grew up in the state idolizing the Bear.
“I’ve never seen anything like [Saban’s run,]” Swinney said. “Coach Bryant was a hero of mine, … but with what Coach Saban has done — the amount of championships in the span of time with the scholarships [limitations] is just incredible. I really have no words to describe it because it’s so hard to do.”
In the days leading up to the national championship game, I got a chance to ask Saban about being considered the GOAT and, of course, he wanted nothing to do with such talk.
“I don’t think about that and I don’t listen to that,” Saban replied. “… I think Bear Bryant is probably the greatest coach who ever coached college football. That’s my vote. And it will stay that way for a long time because he had success over a long, long period of time.”
Saban went into Monday having won four national titles at Alabama and one at LSU. If you’re scoring at home, he’d won five of the last 12 years’ national championships. And he’s done it during an era when the SEC was clearly the most dominant conference in college football. Let’s not forget, during Saban’s reign of dominance over the last dozen years, three other SEC programs (Florida, LSU and Auburn) have also won national championships.
Even Saban, when I pressed him, acknowledged that it’s tougher to win championships in today’s world than in the Bear’s day. There are so many more programs in both college football and college basketball capable of winning a national title now than there were a half-century ago.
Back then, the Bear didn’t have to worry about cash-strapped programs like Florida, Florida State and Miami, that tried futilely to field a football team on a shoestring budget. The Bear didn’t have to worry about the likes of Louisville, Utah, Oregon, Boise State and the dozens of other schools that have the resources now to compete with the big boys. Back in the Bear’s day, there weren’t scholarship limitations and mega-milliondollar conference TV contracts that leveled the playing field.
“There are a lot of good programs now,” Saban acknowledged. “I think as the years have gone on, the rules have sort of been changed to create parity in college football.”
Despite the parity, Saban has created a dynasty by managing his program better than everybody else. Ironically, he has done it sort of like the Bear once did it. He not only outsmarts his opponents; he outspends them.
And here’s the frightening thing, it doesn’t appear that his dominance is going to end anytime soon. Win or lose against Clemson on Monday night, there’s a very good chance Saban will be back in the hunt next year . . . and the year after . . . and the year after.
There’s no “ifs” or “thens” about it.
Nick Saban was greater than Bear Bryant long before Monday’s national championship game.