re: Nick Saban (2008-2014) vs Kirby Smart (2017-2023)

quote:

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In 2008-2014 you could go undefeated in the season and win one bowl game to be undefeated for the year. Now a P5 has to go undefeated in the season, win a conference championship, and beat two of the top 4 teams in the nation to be undefeated for the year. Big difference.

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I'm not making an argument or judgement about which time period is/was more difficult to go undefeated and win a national championship which is why I didn't include pre playoff national championship games or current national championship playoff games in my list of ranked opponents for each team. I was simply showing the ranked teams each team played during the regular season/conference title game over each of the two respective 7 season time spans to give further perspective to the win/loss records I posted for each coach in my OP.

I'm not in any way trying to diminish what Kirby has done from 2017 to now. In fact, he's on pace to match or exceed a run of dominance that I didn't think I'd ever see again which speaks to how incredibly the run he has been on these last 7 seasons. I just found the two time spans (Saban 2008-2014 and Smart 2017-2023) remarkably similar which is why I decided to compare the two.