As usual, Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban gets his wish. Saban has been clamoring for years for the SEC to increase its conference games from eight to nine. This past year he even made the case the conference should go to 10 games. While the longest tenured coach in the SEC has long been asking for more conference games, he has never had the support of his peers. This year, they have no choice.

The SEC has decided to play a 10-game, conference only schedule amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The season will start on September 26 and the SEC Championship will be played on December 19.

This will force the 13 other SEC coaches to play the schedule that Coach Saban has always wanted.

Saban has campaigned for more conference games in order for his players to experience playing everyone in the conference over the course of their college career. He also has been in favor of playing more Power 5 games in order to keep college football more intriguing for the fans.

He has complained in the past, saying it is difficult to find opponents who will play Alabama and by adding conference games that would eliminate that problem.

Due to the pandemic this season the Big 10, Pac-12 and SEC have all decided to only play conference opponents, forcing that upon the other 13 coaches in the league will show them that more SEC games is best for the health of the conference.

Most of the opposition to Saban's desires have come due the fact that a university needs six wins to become bowl eligible. Playing four games against "cupcake" opponents means an SEC team only needs two conference wins to become bowl eligible.

This year's conference only schedule will work well for the fans, the players and the conference.  While the pandemic is a difficult and tragic thing, perhaps watching the most contested conference championship in the history of the league will help get us through.

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