Speaking at last night’s Over The Mountain Touchdown Club banquet in Birmingham, former legendary Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden said that he thinks the level of competition in the Southeastern Conference is too strong for Nick Saban to maintain the the level of success he’s had over the last three years.
Saban is the only active head coach to have won three national titles, all three in the SEC.
"I think Alabama has a tougher time. You've got too many good teams. I don't know how you keep winning in that league. It only takes one slipup and you're out. Is Alabama capable of doing that? Yeah, but everybody else is better, too. But if they did it, it wouldn't surprise me."
That caused Saban to respond. Leaning forward he says: “We didn’t win our division last year.”
Bowden won two national titles of his own at Florida State, but he did it using SEC caliber talent and playing against an ACC schedule. Beating up on Maryland, Duke and NC State is not the same as playing a schedule with the likes of Georgia, Florida, Auburn and LSU. In the ACC, the top of the conference is roughly equal to the SEC’s middlin programs. Bowden knows what it takes to win, but you have to wonder how successful he’d have been if Florida State had accepted the SEC’s bid to join the league in 1991.
