Editor’s note: This article was originally published by USA TODAY Sports and has been republished in its entirety below.
Sitting behind a microphone after winning another national championship, coach Nick Saban faced the news media Monday night and looked a little bored.
This has gotten a little old – six titles in 12 years for his Alabama football team. What else is there for him to say?
It’s true: This time it was more difficult than normal. The Crimson Tide (13-0) had to play through a pandemic and win 11 games against opponents from the Southeastern Conference, plus two playoff games against Notre Dame and Ohio State.
It might have been Saban’s best coaching performance to date, at age 69.
But this can’t last. Or at least it shouldn’t last, if college football wants to avoid becoming as boring as the Crimson Tide’s 52-24 win against the Buckeyes for the national title.
“This team accomplished more almost than any team,” Saban said afterward in Miami Gardens, Florida. “No disrespect to any other teams that we had or any championship teams.”
Saban’s quarterback went even further.
“I think we’re the best team to ever play,” Mac Jones said. “There’s no team that will ever play an SEC schedule like that again.”
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They both might be right: This was a heck of a team that deserved all it got, including its third Heisman Trophy winner since 2009. But that’s the issue. Saban is probably going to be better as a septuagenarian than he was at age 50, when he hadn’t yet won any national titles.
This thing ain’t slowing down. In the corporate business world, it could be called a monopoly. The federal government even has laws and resources to break up companies that become too big and powerful. It’s called “trust busting” – a way to promote competition in the marketplace and protect consumers by dismantling monster monopolies.
This doesn’t happen in college football. Yet it’s past time to think about whether it should.
“Is this what we want football to be?” Saban asked in 2012.
Back then, he was talking about no-huddle offenses that were irritating his defenses.
Today, the question could be turned back on him: Is this what we want college football to be – Saban winning it all at least every other year, mixed in with an occasional title for Clemson or Ohio State, and with half the country west of Kansas having little reason to tune in?
For the sake of the greater good, something must be done. Here are a few ways to break it up: