Alabama Football: Saban overrated? Coach opinion survey flawed.

According to a survey conducted by cbssports.com, Alabama football coach, Nick Saban is the No. 2 most overrated coach in college football.

Three normally reputable media professionals published a survey about college coaches this week. Based upon anonymous responses from other coaches, Alabama football coach Nick Saban was ranked as the No.2 most overrated coach in the FBS.

It is tempting to give the survey a closer look. After all, Jim Harbaugh was ranked as the No.1 most overrated coach.  Harbaugh’s record at Michigan is consistent with such a conclusion.

For those wanting a deep dive into the entire story, click Overrated and Underrated coaches in college football.

The conclusions about underrated coaches cause little or no debate. Even without a survey, most close followers of college football will agree Bill Snyder, Bill Peterson and David Cutcliffe are often underrated.

The authors, Dennis Dodd, Barrett Sallee and Chip Patterson understood many college coaches would be reluctant or unwilling to offer opinions on their coaching counterparts. In terms of traditional survey techniques, even close to 100 percent of the 130 FBS coaches would have been a small sample.

That leads to our complaint about the survey. The authors state they had candid conversations with one-fifth of the 130 FBS coaches. Twenty percent of 130 coaches is 26 coaches. Statisically, that sample size is highly suspect.

According to the released survey results, nine percent labeled Nick Saban as overrated.  Thirteen percent defined Jim Harbaugh as overrated. Like Saban, Lane Kiffin and Lovie Smith were rated overrated by nine percent of coaches.

Just how many coaches rated Saban?

We cannot determine if the percentages apply to all 130 FBS coaches or to the 26 candid conversations. Nine percent of 130 coaches would be 11.7 coaches. Nine percent of 26 would be 2.34 coaches.

Say what you want about coaching quality but decimals do not apply. There are no partial coaches. Absent any specificity from the authors we conclude somewhere between 2 and 11 of all FBS coaches called Nick Saban overrated.

This is not news. It is noise. We feel complicit even writing about its deficiency.

Next: 30 Great Tide Players who were 3-Star Recruits

In conclusion, the story and survey we criticize was prepared by reputable journalists for a solid media platform. Normally we would praise their work. Fans love to hate coaches from other schools so such a piece is almost guaranteed sizable attention. Heck, we even enjoyed the Harbaugh part.