Saban says opener won’t make or break the season

September 01, 2009

By Ken Rogers

Alabama coach Nick Saban said the season opener against Virginia Tech on Saturday night is a big game — but it’s just one game, and just the first game.

“It’s a horrible thought for any team to be out of anything after one game,”  Saban said Monday.

The coach said the season is still in front of both teams after Saturday night’s game.

He was responding to a question that Tech coach Frank Beamer said Alabama could win the national championship if it lost Saturday night, but he wasn’t sure the Hokies could.

“I think that’s one of the advantages to playing in a conference like our conference,” Saban said. “I think we’ve had two national champions, when we won (at LSU in 2003) we lost a game, I’m talking about SEC schools.  Florida lost a game last year.  LSU lost two games, the year they won it (2007)., a couple of years before that.  I don’t know that I agree with his (Beamer’s) part of it.

“They have a pretty good schedule this year.  They play Nebraska and Miami, early in the season, as well as us.  I don’t know that I agree with that.  Any team that has one loss still has a chance to win the national championship and there is evidence that a team with two losses has that potential as well.”

Saban said he doesn’t like the development that only one game matters — the BCS National Championship Game.

“I have always been a bowl guy,” Saban said. “I’ve always been a guy that lots of positive reinforcement for a lot of players who get the opportunity to play in a bowl game for their efforts.

“If there is anything that has created a negative situation in college football, to me, it’s the fact that there is only one thing that matters and that’s who wins the national championship.  I don’t think that’s fair to all the other good teams in college football, or all the other players who play in college football.

“It’s a pretty significant accomplishment to win the SEC.  It’s a pretty significant accomplishment to win the ACC. So, if there is a down side to our system right now, that’s why I’ve always been kind of for the plus-one thing, where there are at least four teams involved in this.  Maybe it wouldn’t be so much that way.

“Because if you had four teams, one and two losses would not knock you out of it. A lot more people would be interested and there would be a lot more teams in the end. So now we’re talking about the first game of the season, you’re out of it? It’s horrible.”