Nick Saban didn’t leave much room for nostalgia when he sized up the national title race on The Pat McAfee Show.
The former Alabama coach, who built one of the sport’s great dynasties in Tuscaloosa, left his old program out of his list of the four most complete teams. Instead, he pointed to Georgia, Notre Dame, Miami, and Ohio State.
“The four teams to me that have been the most complete are Georgia, Notre Dame, Miami, and Ohio State.” He then added, “I like Indiana and we're gonna see what they're made of against Ohio State.”
That list lines up with ESPN’s FPI ratings, which also put those four teams atop the title picture in the same order: Georgia at 18.4%, Notre Dame at 17.9%, Miami at 14.1%, and Ohio State at 12.5%. Indiana is slotted at No. 6 in title likelihood, with Alabama sitting at No. 5.
The omission is notable because Saban’s Alabama track record speaks for itself. From 2008, his second season in Tuscaloosa, through 2023, the Tide never finished worse than No. 11 in the final rankings. During that stretch, Saban won five national championships and reached the title game three more times.
Since he stepped away and moved to television, Alabama’s standard has looked harder to sustain. Kalen DeBoer has now lost four games in each of his first two seasons, giving him more four-loss seasons already than Saban had, and matching Saban’s total of seasons with more than two losses at two.
Alabama did slip into the College Football Playoff last season with three losses, then won its first-round game before falling in the quarterfinal.
The Tide also took a hit last week in a 20-17 loss to Georgia. Even so, FPI still gives Alabama an 82.4% chance to make the College Football Playoff and projects a 10-2 regular season.
But at Alabama, good is never enough. Great is the standard.
And when Saban leaves his old team off the shortlist, that says plenty.
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