One of the things that made the 2024 college football season interesting was the fact that former legendary head coach for the Alabama Crimson Tide, Nick Saban, would be away from the game as a retiree. Now, Saban is explaining what has made this season even wilder. The instability at the top of the rankings.
Through the first half of the season, it’s felt like there has been a new top-ranked team every week. The Georgia Bulldogs have stumbled and suffered a loss, Alabama lost its No. 1 ranking on the road against Vanderbilt, and the Texas Longhorns lost. Now, the Oregon Ducks hold the title of the top-ranked team, but who knows how long that will last.
Saban explained that teams are getting too complacent when they are at or near the top of the rankings. In what is one of many Saban quotes that are worthy of being printed on a coffee mug, Saban stated, “people get complacent pretty easily and that’s why you see teams having difficulty staying at number one… It doesn’t matter that you’re number one until you’re number one at the end.”
We are still a few months away from reaching the end of the season and crowning a new national champion, but at this point, it feels like it’s up for grabs.
It will take some time before we know whether the current parity across all of college football will hold, but many are pointing to the massive changes that have taken place over the last few years, such as the expansion of the College Football Playoff, conference realignment, the transfer portal, and name, image, and likeness.
College Sports Wire will continue to follow all things college football as the 2024 season progresses.