Joel Klatt roasts SEC: Nick Saban isn’t there ‘with his big old coattails for you to ride as a conference’
For years, the SEC has been widely believed to be the strongest conference in college football. And for years this belief was true.
Starting in 2009, Nick Saban created one of the most impressive dynasties in sports history. The Alabama Crimson Tide won the BCS National Championship in his third year on the job. And I never stopped winning. They won again in 2011 and 2012. They then won three more College Football Playoff National Championships from 2015-2020.
But as hard as it is to believe, 2020 has now been six years and times have changed. Dramatically. The Big Ten won three consecutive National Championships, coincidentally starting with the change of name, image and likeness rules to allow college football players to receive payments from outside teams. Not only has the Big Ten won three in a row, but the SEC hasn’t reached the championship game since 2022.
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Nick Saban speaks at ESPN’s College GameDay at Vanderbilt University on October 25, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Carly Mackler/Getty Images)
SEC teams are 1-8 against teams from other conferences and 0-3 in the playoffs against other Power 4 programs during the 2025-2026 bowl season. Despite these obvious facts and many unpleasant statistics, Commissioner Greg Sankey and other prominent figures at the conference’s recent spring meetings were adamant that it remains by far the best conference in the country.
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There are some who agree with this view, some who don’t, and based on some of FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt’s comments, he falls firmly in the latter category. From where? Because Nick Saban has retired and the conference will no longer be able to carry his “old great coat.”
“This is not 2012, this is not 2016, this is 15,” Klatt said during a recent episode of his show. “Sorry, Nick Saban is no longer there with his old big coat for you to walk around the conference with. Not like that anymore. So I thought we should recap what we learned from the SEC spring meetings, and honestly it wasn’t much.
“What did we get? Propaganda. Great,” he continued. “Let’s start with what Greg Sankey said, which was basically ‘hey, we’re the best.’ That’s wrong. They’re not the best conference in college football by far. And frankly, I don’t even know if you can call them the best conference in college football.”
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey watches before the college football game between Alabama and Ole Miss at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss., on Nov. 12, 2022. (Joe Robbins/Icon Sportwire)
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Klatt added that the “data” shows the Big Ten has surpassed the SEC and those who doubt it are more likely to support the SEC or their schools.
“Why don’t we just look at the data, why don’t we just look at the data, why don’t we call it balls and strikes, because here’s the thing: Greg is saying this in a meeting like this to a group of writers who largely want it to be true. If you believe, deep in your heart, what he’s saying, it’s because you want to believe what he’s saying. You don’t want to see the data, you don’t want to see the truth.”
“And that’s a good thing, and that’s what makes college football great. If you’re a fan and you’re angry because you feel like what am I going to talk about right now and you’re thinking to yourself, ‘No way, there it goes,’ that’s okay, because the passion in our sport is what makes our sport great. The data shows that what Greg said is completely false. The Big Ten is 4-0 against the SEC in the last three playoffs. 4-0 is not a small thing. It’s a thing now.”
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Fox Sports Football Analyst Joel Klatt broadcasts during the trophy presentation following the Big Ten Conference Championship game between the Indiana Hoosiers and Ohio State Buckeyes at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind., on December 6, 2025. (Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire)
Yes, four games is a small sample size. But the play-off is best against best, seemingly providing a clearer comparison. Bowl games also went the Big Ten’s way. Iowa beat Vanderbilt, a team that believes it should be in the College Football Playoff. Illinois beat a Tennessee team that had been ranked for most of the season. Indiana destroyed Alabama and the only win was for Texas over Michigan. The same Texas team also lost to Ohio State in the first week of the year. Meanwhile, Curt Cignetti and the Indiana Hoosiers went 16-0, a few months after Steve Sarkisian said undefeated teams were a thing of the past.
It is Sankey’s job to ignore these results and point to his preferred metrics. But it’s incumbent on outsiders to be honest about where the SEC is right now. Because the activism of Sankey and other coaches has already influenced the selection committee. Alabama’s inclusion in the 2025-2026 field proves that. That’s why Klatt is right to say this is propaganda.
