Nick Saban has an idea for ‘rating system’ to encourage programs to schedule stronger opponents
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Nick Saban understands the criticism the Alabama program receives due to the level of non-conference opponents it plays throughout the season. It’s manifested itself in the stands of Bryant-Denny Stadium, with those matchups not seeing nearly the attendance the bigger-ticket games attract.
One of Saban’s concerns is programs intentionally scheduling weaker opponents to pad their win total and increase their chances of getting the 6 wins necessary to get themselves bowl-eligible. During a Tuesday interview with 247Sports’ Josh Pate, he proposed an interesting solution.
“Why don’t we do it like basketball, have some rating system that even if you went 5-7, but you played a really good schedule and you beat some pretty good teams, you could go to a bowl game, rather than trying to create a schedule where you play 4 teams that you know you’re gonna beat, and ‘if I can just win 2 other games I’ll be bowl eligible’,” he said. “And that’s important to my program, and it’s important to me keeping my job.”
The Crimson Tide host Utah State, Louisiana-Monroe, and FCS Austin Peay in 2022, but have scheduled a 2-year series beginning this season with Texas — visiting Austin on Sept. 10 before hosting the Longhorns in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 9, 2023. They also have a trip to USF scheduled for a week later.
Nick Saban wants a formula in CFB similar to what RPI does in college hoops to properly rate teams pic.twitter.com/jm5d7k08HL
— Josh Pate (@LateKickJosh) July 19, 2022
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
