The Joyless Triumph of Nick Saban

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When it comes to college football, the South has no equal, because the Southeastern Conference has no equal. Find me a conference with a better commissioner, better players, better head coaches, better staffs, better game-day atmospheres, better-looking coeds—better anything.

We have so many trophies, banners and national titles that we rent storage space at the National Archives. Our championship teams have spent more time in the White House than the Secret Service. We've presented so many No. 1 jerseys to POTUS that he could open his own Dick's Sporting Goods. DKS -0.99%

People outside the SEC look down on the South's obsession with college football. I look up to it. The SEC is college football's industrial giant. It makes us Southerners proud again. It helps define us. It makes us a family. College football is our great equalizer. You've got Harvard, Wall Street and Independence Hall. We've got the Iron Bowl, Main Street and Kyle Field.

At the top of the SEC food chain is Alabama and the state's favorite control freak: Nick Saban.

Yes, he can be secretive, manipulative, socially insufferable, dictatorial and imperial. Your point is? All Saban has done is win three of the last five national championships. When the four-team playoff kicks in this season, Saban will figure out a way to win one of those, too. Give him enough time and he'd win "American Idol," the Iditarod and the North Dakota gubernatorial race. He could coach a lingerie football team to the Big Ten championship game.

The next most influential man in his state is probably Governor Robert Bentley. But Saban is Nos. 1 through 10 on the list of Alabama power brokers. He would be in the top 10 even without his three national titles with the Crimson Tide. The position itself—head football coach at Alabama—gives you a platform of power. But because of the program's wild success, Saban is the best-liked person in the state. He has the most visible job in the state, and given the religiosity with which Alabamans apply themselves to college football, Saban now has another title: the pontiff of pigskin.

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