Nick Saban only SEC coach to vote against eight-game league slate

Nick Saban has been called “the devil himself” by one rival coach and “Nicky Satan” by another.

The Alabama coach is also way ahead of hell’s curve on most matters involving college football — and he’s got four BCS titles to prove it.

So what a “shock” it was this week when Southeastern Conference coaches voted 13 to 1 to preserve the league’s eight-game conference schedule.

The lone dissenter was Saban.

With the new playoff coming in 2014, an eight-game schedule in a 14-team conference makes about as much sense as the DMV giving Justin Bieber a driver’s license.

The issue going forward in college football is going to be equity, parity and playoff justice.

The selection committee picking the four semifinal teams should be looking for consistency across the board.

The five major conferences all need to play nine-game schedules. The Pac 12 and Big 12 are already there and the Big Ten is on its way. The ACC, the weakest link, isn’t at nine yet but will ultimately do what it is told.

Saban understands that the SEC is college’s most powerful football league but also knows what’s fair.

SEC schools, for years, have used the extra nonconference game to schedule a cupcake win. That worked fine in the BCS era but won’t work in the College Football Playoff.

The addition of Texas A&M; and Missouri to the SEC last year created even more fortuitous schedule quirks. Georgia, a team that came 10 yards from making the BCS title game, avoided Alabama, LSU AND Texas A&M; in the regular season.

Georgia’s four nonconference games were a “Misdemeanors Row” of Buffalo, Florida Atlantic, Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech.

Most SEC coaches don’t want change. Some don’t even make sense. LSU’s Les Miles hilariously said the 13-1 vote to stay at eight games was “unanimous.”

Saban’s lone vote, though, will eventually carry the day. No one sees the future more clearly than he does.

No wonder he wins so much, and why so many coaches hate him for it.

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