Paul Finebaum: Nick Saban reversal of stance highlights challenge of Greg Sankey in SEC Football scheduling

The SEC’s attempt to increase the number of conference games in a season from eight games to nine has been one of the most widely discussed topics at the conference’s spring meetings this week. Alabama head coach Nick Saban went from being for the nine-game schedule to against it, recently saying whatever happens, happens regarding the situation.

College football analyst Paul Finebaum is at spring meetings and recently spoke with Cole Cubelic and Greg McElroy about Saban’s stance (or multiple stances) regarding the schedule changes.

“He may say something in an hour that contradicts that, so you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get from any of these people once they’re put in front of live microphones, but it is peculiar,” Finebaum said.

“Now it’s not a surprise if you follow this, as we do every day, because as we’ve gotten closer to the SEC meetings there has not been resolution.”

Finebaum believes Saban’s indecision displays the challenge that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey faces with the scheduling topic and other relevant changes the conference pursues, but he also believes that Sankey is cut out to make the proper changes happen long term.

“I do believe this about Greg Sankey, everyone you talk to and everyone who knows him identifies Greg Sankey as the leading visionary in college athletics, and there’s nothing to dispute that,” Finebaum said.

“So he may be making a temporary compromise for the long game, and the long game in college athletics is how you win not just to satisfy the headlines of today, because the headlines of today won’t be that great.”

With over half the SEC teams in favor of sticking with an eight-game schedule in 2024 at spring meetings, 2025 is expected to likely be targeted as the next opportunity to push for nine the nine-game schedule, especially with Oklahoma and Texas entering the conference in 2024.

But many other factors like College Football Playoff and media rights implications will have an impact on the change as well, which makes Finebaum believe that simply adding an extra SEC game to the schedules soon isn’t as easy or simple as it seems.

“So I’m really curious to see what else he said and based on what he said yesterday informally to some reporters before this event even got started, it seemed like he was already calculating hey, there’s more to this than what you believe.