Nick Saban reacts to Georgia as SEC favorite: 'Hard to know' who will win league in 2024

Nick Saban is no longer the Alabama coach, which means he can finally offer his unfiltered thoughts on the SEC ahead of the first year in well over a decade without him.

Before the festivities began in Dallas on Monday, Saban hopped on ESPN’s Get Up with Mike Greenberg to discuss some of the various talking points regarding the SEC in 2024. As part of their discussion, Greenberg pointed out that despite last year’s SEC title and College Football Playoff appearance for the Crimson Tide, it’s Georgia who comes into this fall as the betting favorites to win the league.

When asked for his reaction to that fact, Nick Saban admitted Georgia is right there at the top, however, he still feels that the league is as wide open as ever, especially with more of a chance to make the playoff.

“Well, I think Georgia has a really good team,” Saban responded. “I think Texas has a really good team,” he added. “But I also think there are six or seven teams in the SEC who could be playoff teams.”

But he’s just not sure what to think once all of these powerhouse programs begin to cannibalize one another.

“So, if you take all that into consideration, and these people are all playing each other, it’s hard to know exactly who is going to come out on top. I mean, It’s almost like musical chairs trying to predict who is going to sit down first.

“So I think, because of the structure of the conference now with 16 teams and the kind of schedule you’ve got to play, no divisions, you know, all those things are going to weigh in to who has the most success.”

Surprisingly, Nick Saban admitted that absolutely, luck is a big part of who ultimately becomes champion. There are factors like the schedule — some teams will avoid the top contenders, others won’t — plus the health of the team and other random occurrences that can alter the outcome of a year on a dime.

“It always happens that if you can stay healthy and you’re lucky and the good players on your team stay focused on what they need to do, that’s going to help you be successful,” says Nick Saban. “So a lot of factors go into making a prediction like that right now.”