Alabama coach Nick Saban didn't become one of the nation's top coaches by following the pack.
The coach that has resurrected the Crimson Tide program with three NCAA championships in four years, including two in a row, wants the Southeastern Conference to switch from an eight-game to a nine-game schedule, USA Today has reported.
Saban's fan-friendly reasoning likely will earn him brownie points with college football fans across the country. That should counterbalance the sentiment about Saban after Florida Gators defensive coordinator Tim Davis recently called the Alabama coach, "the devil himself."
"The biggest thing we all need to do in some of these decisions we're making about who we play and what we do is, 'What about the fans?' " USA Today reported Saban as saying. "One of these days they're going to quit coming to the games because they're going to stay at home and watch it on TV. Everybody's going to say, 'Why don't you come to the games?' Well, if you'd play somebody good, then we'd come to the games.
"That should be the first consideration. Nobody's considering them. They're just thinking about, 'How many games can I win? Can I get bowl-qualified? How many tough teams do I have to play?' "
The other rationale behind the nine-game conference slate is that it would strengthen the league's overall strength of schedule, which will be a key factor with college football moving to a playoff system in 2014.
A playoff selection committee is expected to emphasize strength of schedule, the report said, and the SEC generally is considered the best college football conference in the nation.
Most SEC coaches said they preferred the current eight-game schedule, which is a comment sentiment among coaches. The eight-game schedule allows teams to play the same number of home and away games in league play.
SEC commissioner Mike Slive SEC said Tuesday that the discussion wouldn't be put to a vote here this week during the league's annual meetings, and said the league would the eight-game schedule at least through the 2014 season, USA Today reported.
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