For a long time, the 2024 college football season was the year of SEC Football. After Week 11 of the season, the AP Poll had seven SEC teams in its top 16. The first CFP Selection Committee rankings also had seven SEC teams in the top 16. For much of the season, there was speculation the SEC would get four or maybe five slots in the first 12-team Playoff field.
Instead three SEC football teams made the Playoffs and the reputation of the league has been diminished since. There is a good reason why. The record of SEC football teams in the Playoffs was 2-3, with Georgia and Tennessee losing their first games. Especially glaring was Tennessee's bust, losing to Ohio State 42-17.
The college football world has long been ripe for some SEC comeuppance. The old (and true) saying that nothing lasts forever was held at bay by the SEC for two decades. Going back to LSU's 2003 National Championship, SEC football teams won 14 of 22 National Championships.
A non-SEC team will win Monday night and according to Paul Finebaum, the person responsible for that failing is Nick Saban. Saban was responsible for eight of the 14 SEC National Championships going back to the 2003 season. Technically, the count is seven for Saban, but LSU won in 2007 with a team still benefitting from the program Saban built at LSU. Certainly, the Bengal Tigers did not win because Les Miles was a great coach.
Recently Paul Finebaum and Matt Barrie rehashed a tired theme. The theme was that under Kalen DeBoer, Alabama Football has lost what was long known as the 'Bama Standard'. As reported by The Sporting News, Finebaum "outlined how Saban's absence from the SEC impaired the whole (Alabama) program this season -- to a point where they couldn't even stand strong in the College Football Playoff." More telling was Finebaum's comment about today's SEC. "From 2009 to 2020, Nick Saban played, was in the National Championship game nine times. That is a big deal. Kirby Smart was supposed to take the sport over. He didn't. And now that we look at it, the Nick Saban era in College Football. I think it was more about Nick Saban than it was about the SEC. It was really about Saban."
SEC Football after Nick Saban
Kirby Smart still has a chance to prove Paul Finebaum wrong. So does Steve Sarkisian. Maybe one of the lower-profile SEC coaches will go on a run. But outside of the fan bases of Tennessee, Texas A&M, LSU, and Ole Miss, does anyone foresee Josh Huepel, Mike Elko, Brian Kelly, and Lane Kiffin winning back-to-back national championships? It is more likely the quartet will never win one. Championship chances are even smaller for the SEC's also-ran programs.
Paul Finebaum is right. It is a new SEC. But, Kalen DeBoer is not to blame. It is Nick Saban's fault, but only in an exceptionally good way.