As the 2024 college football moves ahead, the topic of discussion surrounding the Southeastern Conference (SEC) remains lit. It’s full of intense rivalries, and teams fighting for the national title make the bar high for winners. This year, elite programs like Georgia and Ohio are currently reigning, and every other team is also looking at the top position. Amidst all that chaos, former Alabama head coach Nick Saban has created a surge by expressing his thoughts on the SEC and why it has that ever-lasting hype among fans. He not only compared it to other conferences but also to the NFL. As per Saban, “Everybody grew up being a college sports fan.”

Nick Saban’s presence has made ESPN’s College Game Day even more interesting. In their 13th September show, Pat McAfee discussed the difficulties of playing in the SEC with Saban. Saban explained that the passion for playing at the SEC is the highest. He said, “I was in the Big 10 for lots of years. I was in the NFL for lots of years. But the passion here is different because there were no pro sports in the South until like 1970. You know, I mean, the Dolphins and the Atlanta Falcons started then. So everybody grew up being a college sports fan. Everybody grew up relating to LSU or Alabama or Ole Miss or whoever.” According to Saban, who has dual experience of coaching in the NFL and coaching in the NCAA, college football is something we grew up watching. Indeed, there is always much more buzz surrounding college football than at any other conference.

“The passion for football in the SEC is different.

I don’t think there’s any place that you play in the SEC that’s easy” ~ Nick Saban #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/hKBIN2m5pv

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 13, 2024

Furthermore, Saban explained that college football is an emotion everyone can relate to. He stated that people grew up watching college sports and not professional sports, after which he provided an example. When Saban was coaching Michigan State, seven teams were situated around the 65-mile radius. That’s why he repeatedly advocates that playing in the SEC is much more difficult.

Nick Saban compared the SEC Championship with the NFL

Although the NFL has its standard of being a professional league with a set of professional fans as well, Saban highlighted the fact that, in the NFL, the focus of fans remains on individual players. For example, in the NFL, players keep changing teams accordingly. This is true with the rise of specific NFL superstars. We have had the likes of Payton Manning, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers (who is still going on). In the current era, there are stars QBs, like Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, etc. There is a similar popularity of players featuring in other positions. However, per Nick Saba, college football is all about loyalty. You live and breathe Alabama, or Michigan, or Georgia.

The kind of loyalty and commitment that can be seen in college football is felt missing in the professional setup, which is more contract-oriented and personally ranked-based. In CFB, we see players such as Miller Moss every other day who would wait for 2-3 years as a backup and wait for the day they hit the star spot. That’s the kind of attachment players have in the SEC for their colleges.