{"id":580901,"date":"2025-12-06T15:39:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T15:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/580901\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T15:39:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T15:39:16","slug":"nick-saban-fires-back-at-desmond-howard-for-claiming-the-sec-is-a-basketball-conference-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/580901\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Saban fires back at Desmond Howard for claiming the SEC is a basketball conference now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Saban<\/a> and Desmond Howard got into it during College GameDay<\/a>, in a loving manner of course! Saban clapped back at Howard\u2019s claim that the SEC turned into a basketball conference while the Big Ten is the dominant force in college football these days.<\/p>\n

As the rankings tell us right now, the CFP has No. 1 and 2 from the Big Ten: Ohio State<\/a> and Indiana<\/a>. The two undefeated squads will square off for the conference crown.<\/p>\n

While on site in Atlanta for the SEC Championship between No. 3 Georgia<\/a> and No. 9 Alabama<\/a>, Howard shot his shot. Of course, it angered all of the SEC area fans in the back of the set, and Saban eventually fired back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Big Ten Championship game is one to keep an eye on. I know we\u2019re here at the SEC Championship Game, but listen, you guys got to understand the national championship is going through the Big Ten,\u201d Howard said on College GameDay. \u201cThe Big Ten runs college football right now. We got the Oregon Ducks, the Indiana Hoosiers, ain\u2019t none of y\u2019all want to see the Buckeyes of Ohio State, and that game is going to be a big game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see, really, how Ohio State\u2019s going to look. It\u2019s like a road game. I mean, it\u2019s going to be a home game for Indiana. What do you think it\u2019s like? 65-35? Like a home game for the Hoosiers \u2026 Listen (the fans behind me), they\u2019re talking about college basketball. They\u2019re a basketball conference now, it should be applauded. But, yeah, so I want to see if the Hoosiers are going to really, you know, test the Buckeyes. They really haven\u2019t been tested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referencing one of his former players, Saban had a bit of a zinger. It was a man that has seen what it\u2019s like to play for Alabama and Ohio State!<\/p>\n

\u201cYou obviously didn\u2019t see Caleb Downs<\/a> explaining the difference between playing in the SEC and the Big Ten,\u201d Saban responded. \u201cObviously.\u201d<\/p>\n

SEC, Big Ten, Howard or Saban, doesn\u2019t matter. It seems there\u2019s no perfect solution to the College Football Playoff selection process, at least, that\u2019s how SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sees it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect that they\u2019ve been assigned that,\u201d Sankey said<\/a>. \u201cYou use the word satisfied. When you\u2019re me, you\u2019re never satisfied. You\u2019re always trying to figure out, well, I think there should be more, and I\u2019ve had different views on outcomes over the years. This is an incredibly strong conference and incredibly deep conference. We, as a staff, I think, are thorough and effective at providing information through the agreed-upon channels. We respect that we have charged the selection committee with making those decisions. We\u2019ll see what happens on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Saban and Desmond Howard got into it during College GameDay, in a loving manner of course! Saban…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48,11973],"class_list":{"0":"post-580901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-nick-saban-69-monongah"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115673381726499607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}