Nick Saban indifferent on SEC football scheduling: 'Whatever happens, happens'

The SEC spring meetings are underway for 2023. As always, football is dominating the discussion, with a particular issue dividing representatives of each school: how many conference games to play in the regular season once Oklahoma and Texas arrive.

Some coaches, like Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, are full steam ahead on a nine-game slate. Others are more hesitant and don’t want to deal with having another grueling SEC game to prepare for each season that could also put their out-of-conference rivalry matchups in jeopardy.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban has found himself one both sides of the fence and attempted to act indifferent towards the decisions at the spring meetings this week. According to On3’s Jesse Simonton, Saban simply said, “whatever happens, happens,” when asked about scheduling.

Brett McMurphy also provided a quote from the Crimson Tide coach revealing that he would even be in favor of playing only power conference games if that’s what the league wanted to do.

“Things go into this like TV contracts. I’m sure a lot of those things will factor into it,” said Saban. “I’ve always been in favor of playing all games against Power 5 opponents.”

Reports had recently surfaced suggesting Saban had drifted back towards the side of not wanting to increase the SEC slate to nine games, especially after he didn’t take to well to the rumored annual opponents ‘Bama would face in a nine-game scenario. But now, sounds like he’s not terribly invested in the decision, but perhaps just wants to see the Tide get a fair shake if there are permanent opponents.

More from Saban at spring meetings

At the SEC Spring Meetings, Nick Saban also discussed his thoughts on college football in general, saying it is time to take a professional approach to the sport.

“Unionize it, make it like the NFL,” Saban said, according to Action Network’s Brett McMurphy. “Make it the same for everyone. Everything they do for NFL is to create parity. If they have every team at 8-8 going into final week of the season, the NFL would love it.”

This comes after Saban seemed to take a nonchalance approach to the debate of whether the SEC should have eight or nine conference games every season.

“Things go into this like TV contracts. I’m sure a lot of those things will factor into it,” Saban said. “I’ve always been in favor of playing all games against Power 5 opponents.”