It’s Rivalry Week in college football, and for a moment, that feels like everything. While that hatred may burn eternally, the game is fleeting. Championships are forever.
That’s a simple calculus for college football coaches, players, and fans, one that confronted Nick Saban in 2017 when his team lost the Iron Bowl, then went on to win the national championship. That’s the path that Ohio State took last season, falling to Michigan in The Game for the fourth straight season before ripping off four straight wins in the College Football Playoff to hang a banner.
In this moment of hatred in Ann Arbor, the question was posed to Michigan legend Desmond Howard on the ESPN College GameDay set: Would you rather win the CFP or win The Game? Howard had a tough time giving a straight answer, likely because that would concede something to Ohio State fans who got over last year’s upset loss to Michigan when the Buckeyes won their ninth national title.
Nick Saban knows from experience, a title means more than the Iron Bowl
Nick Saban, though, had a straightforward answer, and the right one. “I think winning a national championship is something you never forget,” Saban said to Rece Davis when the question was posed to him. “So you would take a loss in the Iron Bowl in 2025 and make a four-game run and win it all?” Kirk Herbstreit followed up. “As much as our fans wanted to win the Iron Bowl, I’d rather win the national championship,” said implored.
Nick Saban indicates that he'd rather win a National Championship than the Iron Bowl, and he might've upset a few Alabama fans in the process. pic.twitter.com/8mSPmqp7gQ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 29, 2025
That theory was already put to the test, and I imagine all Alabama fans would agree that they wouldn’t trade a 2017 Iron Bowl win for CFP wins over Clemson and Georgia to secure the program’s 14th national championship.
Frankly, it’s an absurd question. Sure, the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is heated. It might even be more heated than the Iron Bowl or any other rivalry in the country. Regardless of how you rank the games being played this week, none of those games is anywhere near as important as a national championship.
That should be obvious, but for some reason, we’ve decided to build up these regular-season rivalries into something otherworldly. In many cases, the meaning is especially stripped away now in the 12-team College Football Playoff era when an Ohio State can lose to Michigan and still have a real chance of making the field and winning it all.
The stakes at Jordan-Hare, at least for Alabama, are a bit higher on Saturday night, though. A win sends the Crimson Tide to the SEC Championship and almost certainly secures a spot in the CFP field. A loss means Kalen DeBoer will have missed the playoffs in each of his first two seasons and could send the program and the fanbase spiraling.
This year, beating Auburn is Alabama’s only path to the national championship, but it’s still nowhere near as important as hanging another banner in Tuscaloosa.