Five Reasons Why Saban Will Retire at Alabama

(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Earlier this week, local columnist/ radio talk show host/ pot stirrer Paul Finebaum published a column declaring that University of Florida head coach Urban Myer would jump at the chance to go to his self professed “dream job” Notre Dame if Charlie Weiss gets the hook this year.  The Gator nation quickly rebuffed the statement, and chalked it up to sensationalist journalism meant to evoke discussion in the dragging summer months before football season.  Secretly, many Alabama fans probably entertained the thought “Well, if Notre Dame can’t get Myer, would they go after our coach?” Well, they might. However, here are five reasons why Nick Saban would not take the job, and won’t be going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

It’s his reputation.  Look, even the most ardent Alabama fan would begrudgingly admit that Nick Saban has some jerkish qualities about him.  That’s just the way he is, and it has served him surprisingly well.  That being said, I think Saban still cares about the way people perceive him.  He still stings from the hit his reputation took during the whole Miami to Alabama fiasco.  He knows to make any other sort of move now would completely destroy any shred of integrity he had.  For a guy with an ego like Saban’s, I think that would be too much for him to bear.  He wants to leave behind a statue of himself to stand outside of Bryant Denny Stadium alongside the other head coaches who have brought national championships to the Crimson Tide, and not a legacy that is irrevocably tarnished.

It’s the SEC.  The SEC is hands down the most dominant conference since the dawn of the BCS era.  The conference has captured five BCS titles in the 11 years of the BCS’ existence.  It has just agreed to the most lucrative television deal in college sports history.  The level of competition from week to week is unsurpassed.  It seems as if every week you are playing a hated rival with everything at stake.  If you want to be challenged to be the best you can be, but don’t want to coach in the SEC, then maybe you don’t really want to be truly challenged.

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