FEB. 17 -- It goes without saying that Nick Saban has had an incredible run as the Head Coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, posting a 132-20 record (.868 win %), a 10-4 bowl game record, and hoisting 5 national championship trophies in his 11 seasons with the team (Sports Reference, 2018). He has joined the ranks of legendary coach, Bear Bryant, as the only head coaches to win National Championships. However, it took Bryant 16 years to accomplish this feat whereas it has only taken Saban 14 (Chavez, 2018). It’s even more impressive to note that his 5 championships at Alabama have all been won in the last 9 years, and his Alabama teams have appeared in the College Football Playoff every year since its inauguration in 2014. Some might even declare him as the “Greatest College Football Coach of All-Time.”

       His unprecedented success at Alabama has created a gold standard in the NCAA and more specifically the SEC, that has resulted in a mass coaching exodus. Since his introduction at Alabama in 2007, 18 SEC head coaches have lost their jobs with countless others leaving the conference for various other reasons including other head coaching opportunities and retirement (McFadden, 2017). This is right on par with conferences such as the Big Ten and the Pac-12, however, the caliber of talent that has left is worth noting. Coaches who enjoyed national success such as Les Miles, who won the national championship with LSU in 2008, Mark Richt, who led Georgia to 6 appearances in the SEC title game and led Miami University to the ACC title game this past season, and Steve Spurrier who is regarded as one of the greatest SEC coaches of all time, all ended their SEC coaching careers during Saban’s tenure at Alabama. The list does not stop there however, as this past year Kevin Sumlin, Jim McElwain, Butch Jones, and Bret Bielema were fired as well, the most of any Power 5 conference.

       This raises the question: is Nick Saban largely to blame for this mass exodus of talented coaching? I believe the answer is yes. Since the 2007 season, only 3 teams hold a winning record over Nick Saban and Alabama, and all are non-SEC teams. Only 2 teams in the SEC West have more than 2 wins against the Crimson Tide in this period as well; Auburn has 4 and LSU has 3 (Kirschner, 2017). On top of that, Saban has posted a 10-0 record against Arkansas and an 11-0 record against Tennessee, both of whom fired their head coaches this past season (Fornelli, 2017). I believe that many of the SEC’s previously terminated coaches, especially those who coached in the SEC West, lost their jobs largely in part due to this lack of success against the Crimson Tide. While it is unreasonable to claim that their termination is entirely attributable to Alabama’s dominance, it is reasonable to claim that Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide played a substantial role.