Nick Saban has long been a proponent of a 9-game SEC schedule, and on Monday at the SEC Meetings in Destin, Florida, he offered an explanation.

“My deal is always play more SEC games because we couldn’t get other people to schedule,” he said. “Now more people are in tune to scheduling. Having a balance is probably the important thing.”

Saban favors an NFL model in order to make it equal across the board, and noted that the NFL does it to create parity.

“If they have every team at 8-8 going into final week of the season, the NFL would love it,” Saban said. ” … Things go into this like TV contracts. I’m sure a lot of those things will factor into it. I’ve always been in favor of playing all games against Power 5 opponents.”