The Nick Saban "have to win your conference" meme got so out of hand AL.com wrote about it

LINK



The problem is, like many memes and Internet jokes, it is based in partial truth and accuracy only to conform to the purpose or intent of the overall message.

Question: Do you think being conference champion should trump anything else on a resume for playoff consideration?

Answer: "I think I could answer the question better if you gave me a specific scenario. I think that being a conference champ is certainly a significant accomplishment for any team or any program.

"I also think that sometimes there are circumstances that a team can play really, really well for an entire season, and are we basing the playoff on the whole body of work that a team does throughout the year in terms of all the teams they've beat, the quality opponents they played against, or is it just about one game? And when you talk about conference championships, if you play a conference championship some leagues don't even have conference championships. So, it's not sort of a fair and equitable way to base that particular group that didn't play a conference championship, so you're doing the whole body of work. Then it seems a little more reasonable to look at everyone else's entire body or work when you decide who the best teams are.

"Hey, we won a national championship here and didn't win the SEC. I mean, I think, in that particular year, LSU and Alabama had the two best teams, so we had to play in the regular season. We played 9-6. Forty-two guys, somebody wrote an article, played in the NFL that played on the field that day. So, they were two really, really good teams. Well, both teams in the same division couldn't go to the conference championship. So, we end up playing in the championship game. So is that the right thing or the wrong thing? I'm sure everybody could debate that. But, I believe those were the two best teams. So, it depends on what that goal is."