WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nick Saban resisted the temptation – and we all know it lurked somewhere inside – to erupt this week. We knew the questions were coming. He knew the questions were coming.
Someone had the temerity to ask Saban whether, given Tua Tagovailoa’s gimpy knee, he might rest the sophomore quarterback Saturday against The Citadel?
“No. … No,” Saban told reporters Monday. “Why would we do that? I mean (are you trying) to say this is not an important game or he doesn’t need to play?”
Well, yes. That’s exactly what they were saying – but Saban was finished; he left the room. It was good stuff, though. Even if it was mild by his standards,it was as predictable as th annual November date against an overmatched nonconference opponent.
Welcome, y’all, to the SEC’s Cupcake Weekend. While other leagues are fighting it out for conference titles (and College Football Playoff hopes), the SEC carves out time for a breather from the grind of a long season before the final push.
Yeah, there are three conference games. But Alabama plays The Citadel. Georgia hosts Massachusetts. Florida has Idaho. South Carolina gets Chattanooga. Beyond those FCS opponents, it’s Rice at LSU, Liberty at Auburn and Alabama-Birmingham at Texas A&M (though that one is at least intriguing).
Why? Because they can. Because it works.
Even as the rest of college football grumbles, the November paycheck games provide a nice boost to the SEC’s postseason hopes.
If these games were played in September, there’d be far less complaining from elsewhere. Instead, the SEC plays conference games earlier in the season, which serves the dual purpose of providing TV partners with more attractive inventory in the season’s first month – when those other Power Five leagues are usually gorging on their own cupcakes – and building resumes that impress the playoff selection committee when it begins its work in late October.
And then, in the final weeks of the season, this soft weekend helps to ensure that pushes will not be derailed, and provides a nice break before finishing with rivalry games. And the selection committee has not so far shown any inclination to meaningfully reevaluate those bodies of work; the first impressions have more staying power than the empty calories.
Here’s the thing, too: If the SEC’s Power Five peers wanted, they could do the same. No one forces the Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac-12 to play nine conference games. No one made those three, plus the ACC, fill November almost exclusively with conference games.
And no one should expect the SEC to change.
Still, when Saban describes the matchup with The Citadel as “a challenge for us,” it’s hard not to laugh. His challenge this week is keeping the players motivated (though that likely does not matter, either). The biggest challenge is getting anyone excited about any of these games.
But instead of pretending this slate is anything other than what it really is, maybe the SEC should simply acknowledge and embrace it. Sign endorsement deals with local bakeries. Pass out cupcakes in the parking lots. This, of course, assumes folk are tailgating; this weekend is one of the very few where it’s safe to schedule a fall wedding, or a hunting trip can be taken without guilt.
It’s not so much external carping as the potential its own people might stay away that might eventually force the SEC to change. With its passionate fan bases, the league has seemed largely immune to the falling attendance across the college football landscape (and in other sports at almost any level). But even in the South, sold-out stadiums are no longer a given – and that’s especially true when the opponent barely has a pulse.
Just don’t suggest that last part to Saban. If you doubt his sincerity in talking up The Citadel this week – or at least in insisting it is ludicrous to question if his stars should play – recall what happened in 2007, his first season at Alabama, when Louisiana-Monroe took advantage of four turnovers and upset the Tide. That was before Alabama got things rolling, sure. But Saban remembers.
There are more recent examples. Jacksonville State beat Ole Miss in 2010. When Georgia Southern beat Florida in 2013 (without completing a pass!), it was a pivot point in Will Muschamp’s tenure in Gainesville; he was fired a year later (just ahead of a game with Eastern Kentucky).
And when, ahem, The Citadel beat South Carolina 23-22 in 2015, it came after Steve Spurrier’s midseason retirement and shortly before Muschamp’s hiring by the Gamecocks. In other words, when South Carolina hosts Chattanooga on Saturday, no one should count it as an automatic win.
But no one will ever mistake it, or any of these November matchups, as anything but glorified scrimmages.
If Saban had his way, the practice wouldn’t exist. He’d like to play only non-conference games against other Power Five leagues. And he’s on board with Auburn’s Gus Malzahn in advocating for a nine-game SEC schedule – which would mean only three non-conference games, and would presumably end these annual late-season pillow fights.
But the SEC does not appear close to change. Last July, commissioner Greg Sankey brought up the league’s scheduling philosophy, unprompted, at SEC media days. He recited several pertinent statistics including this one: An SEC team has played in 11 of the last 12 national championship games; winning nine.
He noted the SEC had at least 10 teams in bowls for four consecutive seasons from 2013-16, and nine in 2017. Nine teams have qualified already this season; two more have a shot (Ole Miss could, too – though the Rebels can’t go to a bowl because of NCAA sanctions).
“Stated succinctly, what we do works at both the national championship level,” Sankey said, “and at a level that provides our teams’ meaningful access to postseason bowl opportunities.”
Translation: It just means more cupcakes. Which brings us back to one of Saban’s frustrated answers about whether Tagovailoa should play Saturday.
“You all might be taking the week off this week,” Saban told reporters this week. “I’m not.”
Sadly, though, the SEC essentially is.
