Nick Saban knows a little something about defending national championships.

He’s done so three times already and this season will be his fourth try at it.  (Though he would say with a brand new team, there’s no “defending” anything.)  After the first two BCS crowns he won (LSU 2003, Alabama 2009) his teams failed to recapture the magic the following season.  His 2011 title-winning squad, however, gave way to another national champion in 2012.

The trick to reaching the top of the mountain again?  Starting from scratch.  Saban knows it and consistently tries to get his players to understand it.  Yesterday, he said the same to a group of Alabama fans at a booster event:

“Michael Jordan’s old statement is: No matter how many game-winning shots you’ve made in the past, the only one that matters is the next one.  Well, that’s all that matters to us…

I think we’re still trying to find ourselves and find an identity as a team, which every team has to go through as you re-invent yourself.  So we’ll see how that goes over the summer.”

If Alabama could win yet another BCS title this season, it would be Saban’s fifth national crown and the Tide’s fourth in five years.  At that point you go from talking about “historically great” to “legendarily great.”

Earlier this week, Will Muschamp announced that former BCS championship-winning quarterback Chris Leak was coming home to his alma mater.  Leak — who’s kicked around the NFL, CFL and arena league since departing Gainesville — would join the Gator staff as a quality control coach.

Turns out he’ll be doing that job on the defensive side of the ball, according to Muschamp:

“He decided to branch out a little bit as a football coach, which I think is really smart.  We had an opening on the defensive side of the ball for a control coach and he’s going to work with our secondary.  I told him I’m still young but I wish I had worked on the other side of the ball.  I think that helps you as a football coach aas you continue to develop.  I think that will be really beneficial.”

Leak’s duties will mainly include tape breakdowns.  He will not be an on-field coach.  Quality control jobs are a means for young coaches to get their feet in doors.

Bob Stoops coached in the SEC many moons ago, when the league was dominated annually by Florida and Tennessee.  So last week when he said the SEC’s repuation as a strong league was a product of “propaganda,” it was easy to say he didn’t know what he was talking about.

But Charlie Weis coached in the SEC in 2011.  He knows the current slobber-knockin’ SEC.  And the Kansas head coach — who like Stoops served as an assistant at Florida — agrees that the SEC ain’t all it’s cracked up to be:

“Do you know the stats?  In the SEC, the record of the good guys and the bad guys?

… I’m just sayin’, you look at the bottom of our league and the bottom of their league, just going based off the numbers, there’s validity in what he said.  I’m just going based off the numbers, I mean, I’m a numbers guy.  Just based off the numbers, you’d have to say (Stoops) has got a point.”

Apparently the argument that the good guys and bad guys are worlds apart is based on the fact that the top six teams in the SEC went 30-0 against the bottom eight teams in the league last year.  And, yep, that’s a pretty ugly nugget for the bottom eight teams to have to swallow.

But in how many leagues can you talk about a “top six?”

The Big Ten over the past decade has basically had Ohio State on top.  Southern Cal and Oregon have owned the Pac-12.  In the Big XII, the league title has gone to Texas or Oklahoma every year since 2004.  By comparison, the SEC hasn’t had a repeat champion since 1998.

Just last season the SEC finished the year with five teams ranked in the top 10 of the AP Poll.  The Pac-12 had two teams.  The Big Ten had one.  The ACC had one.  Notre Dame was also in the top 10.  No Big XII team finished in the AP top 10.

In the Big XII’s case, was that a product of uber-parity or the lack of nationally-strong teams up top?  In the SEC’s case, was the domination at the top due to a weak bottom of the league or superior talent among the frontrunners?  Seven consecutive BCS championships would suggest it had more to do with the strength at the top than weakness at the bottom.

A quick scan of both leagues’ records against the remaining “big five” conferences (plus Notre Dame) shows that Big XII teams went 9-5 against the big boys in 2012 for a .642 winning percentage.  The SEC went 13-6 against teams from the ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, and Pac-12 (plus Notre Dame) for a winning percentage of .684.

But this argument isn’t about numbers.  It’s about SEC fatigue.  Everyone outside the SEC is tired of hearing how strong the conference is – they probably shouldn’t listen to NFL GMs — and they’ll look for any possible excuse to run down the league that’s run up seven BCS titles in a row.

Even if it means coaches from a two-team league attacking a conference that’s only six teams deep.

Get used to it.  As long as the SEC is winning, this talk will continue.  And once the SEC finally loses a national championship game, the “I told ya so” chorus will be deafening.  Be prepared.

If there were three successful athletic programs that came out of the most recent expansion/realignment quakes worse for the wear, they were all old Big East squads.  Cincinnati has traditionally been good in basketball and the Bearcats have recently played in a BCS bowl.  Connecticut has traditionally been great in basketball and the Huskies have recently played in a BCS bowl.  West Virginia has traditionally been good in basketball and the Mountaineers have recently played in a BCS bowl.

But none of that helped those schools on the realignment front.  Passed over by the ACC and SEC, West Virginia at least found money in the Big XII, if not nearby rivals or combatants with similar cultures.  Cincinnati and Connecticut were simply passed over, period.

Now having to smile and say nice things about the American Athletic Conference (the rebranded Big East), UConn athletic director Warde Manuel isn’t closing the door on future moves:

“Since the NCAA has been around, since formation of the NCAA, if you look at the history, there’s been realignment of conferences for different reasons.  I don’t proclaim to know if it will ever be done again.  History will tell me at some point there’s going to be shifts.”

Manuel is correct.  Eventually there will be more moves.  College athletic conferences have been in a state of evolution for decades (though the past five years have seemed like a jump straight from the primordial ooze to upright man).  The problem for UConn and Cincinnati, however, is that it doesn’t look like anyone’s going to be making more moves anytime soon.

While it’s possible the Big Ten might look at UConn — that league picked Rutgers and Maryland over the Huskies in November — it’s doubtful Ohio State would want Cincinnati climbing aboard.  It’s also possible that the ACC could decide to expand, but with 15 members in all sports but football, why add anyone else?  (Unless, of course, ESPN says it would help sales of a new ACC Network.)

Perhaps the best hope for the UCs would be a decision by the Big XII to expand.  But that league’s leaders have said the television networks have told them they really wouldn’t benefit by adding teams like Connecticut and Cincinnati.

Bearcat fans have already begun to pepper this website (East Carolina-style) with emails saying, “Hey, what about a UC/SEC marriage?”  Such a move would push the SEC Network into Ohio, perhaps, but Cincinnati just doesn’t fit the traditional mold of an SEC school — flagship school, the only game in town athletically, big football stadium, etc.  Most importantly, it’s doubtful the addition of Cincinnati would pay for itself.

There will be more realignment at some point — perhaps when a new super-division or rich schools is created, perhaps in five or 10 years when another spate of TV deals come up for renegotiation.  But by that time, will UConn and Cincinnati have fallen so far behind cash-wise as to be even less attractive to potential suitors?

SEC Football

1. Brandon Mitchell’s transfer puts more pressure on Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen, writes Barrett Sallee.

2. The Arkansas News Bureau has more on the transfer of Mitchell and three other Razorbacks.

3. The price of Alabama’s trip to the BCS championship game in Miami: $3.4 million.

4. New Auburn defensive line coach Rodney Garner brings an “intense, demanding style” to the Tigers.

5. Jay Prosch was “one of the highlights of the whole spring” at H-Back for Auburn.

6. Who from the SEC will join the College Football Hall of Fame? We’ll find out today at 10:30 ET.

7. Today’s meeting in Jacksonville could be LSU’s “last defining attempt” to eliminate permanent cross-division opponents.

8. Edward Aschoff wraps up the spring looking at the SEC’s attempt for one more BCS title.

9. More good news for Kentucky football player Ashely Lowery: He’s expected to make a “full” recovery.

10. Tennessee coach Butch Jones has turned his team over to the players, writes Mike Strange.

11. The list of elite prospects for next year’s NFL draft does not include Johnny Manziel, according to Bucky Brooks.

SEC Basketball

12. Forward DeVon Walker has decided to transfer from Florida after only one season in Gainesville.

13. Marco Harris and Mark Pancratz are candidates for the Director of Basketball Operations job at Tennessee.

14. There are only two SEC teams in the early Top 25 from USA Today.

Extra

15. Tim Tebow is the most influential athlete of 2013, according to Forbes.

16. The Baltimore Sun looks at the Ravens’ attempt to turn former Ole Miss basketball player Murphy Holloway into a tight end.

17. From yesterday: A highly-touted linebacker wants out of his NLI at Florida State so he can attend Georgia or USC.

18. A tough decision awaits the NCAA regarding the Ben McLemore case, writes Jeff Eisenberg.

Sorry to start your morning with an SAT-style analogy, but the answer to the query posed in our headline should be quite simple.  With Louisville cutting down the nets in Atlanta last night, the Commonwealth of Kentucky is to basketball as the State of Alabama is to football.

The Yellowhammer State is home to the last four BCS championships.  After Alabama won the national crown in 2009, rival Auburn followed up in 2010.  Since then, Bama has captured two more titles.

The Bluegrass State won its first title since 1998 last year under John Calipari.  Last night, their rival, Louisville, won the NCAA Tournament.  Rick Pitino was behind last night’s run and a ’96 UK title, for what it’s worth… becoming the first college basketball coach to ever win national titles at two different schools.

Moving forward, expect both states to be named favorites to keep the hardware within their state boundaries next season.

Alabama under Nick Saban has become the winningest dynasty since Nebraska won or shared national titles in 1994, 1995, and 1997.  The Crimson Tide inked another highly-ranked signing class in February and there’s little doubt that — despite playing in a tough conference — Vegas will make them the BCS favorites in college football again this fall.

Next basketball season, Kentucky and Louisville should both be among the top title contenders as well.  The Wildcats aren’t likely to do another bellyflop, especially not after signing six McDonald’s All-Americans in what some are calling the greatest class in the history of college hoops.  Louisville will lose Peyton Siva, but the Cardinals are bringing in a four-man signing class that’s loaded with backcourt talent.

Chemistry and injuries should serve as caveats to any speculation regarding future national titles.  Calipari’s team had issues with both this past season.  Saban’s 2010 squad didn’t have the same mental makeup as his 2009 team, opening the door for Cam Newton and Auburn to capture their crystal football.

But on paper, Alabama, Kentucky, and Louisville should once again be back in the mix for their respective sports’ national crowns in the 2013-14 academic year.  For that matter, as long as Saban, Calipari, and Pitino are coaching those programs, they will likely be in the mix for a national championship just about every year.

Alabama in football and Kentucky in basketball.  When it comes to college championships, SEC fans don’t have to look to other regions to see where the finest programs reside.

CORRECTION — Kentucky’s last NCAA Tournament win came in 1998 under Tubby Smith, not in 1996 under Rick Pitino as initially noted.

Yesterday, Alabama’s Nick Saban was asked about the comments Bret Bielema made over the weekend claiming that Saban’s record at Michigan State didn’t match his own at Wisconsin.  The man with four BCS championships on his resume claimed the remarks by Arkansas’ coach left him feeling, well, nothing:

“I really don’t have a reaction to it.  I’m really concerned about what we do here with our players, how we try to get the people in our organization to pay at a high standard.  I really don’t defend anything I ever did any place we’ve ever been.  Everybody has different situations they’re in, everybody inherits different situations that they’re in, you do the best you can to try to build a good program in those situations.”

As we told you earlier today, Bielema claimed via Twitter yesterday that he was just joshing around at a Razorback booster club when he compared himself to Saban.

Whether it was a joke or not, the reaction has been predictable.  Alabama fans were outraged.  Arkansas fans said, “Darn tootin’!”  And some in the blogosphere have said college sports needs more of this WWE-style chirping.

Just judging by the television contracts being signed and the massive ratings for games, I’m not sure that college football is longing for much of anything.  Saban’s comments are dry and measured yet he’s won three of the last four BCS titles and his program is the talk of the country.  Apparently he doesn’t need to jape, insult, or be “interesting” in order to generate attention.

But sports fans are divided into two groups.  Those who believe coaches and players should show class and do their talking on the field or court… and those who feel the world of sports needs trash-talkin’, showboatin’, bombasters to make things interesting.  To them, slinging arrows can be a good thing.

Personally, I’ll take the guy who wins, says nothing at the postgame presser, and then flaps his gums with his team behind closed doors.  The games already hold my interest without the ginned up sideshow.

You have to wonder if the SEC’s football and basketball fortunes passed one another on some great lucky escalator in the sky.  With the league mired in mediocrity at the moment — two of its three NCAA Tournament teams combined for one win and two exits — it’s interesting to look back and see when/where the SEC started having hoops issues.  Interesting for two reasons.

First, there is a clear dividing line between SEC basketball goodness and SEC basketball blah-ness.

Second, because that line falls at exactly the same point in time when the league’s football success began to soar.

Below is a look at SEC basketball since the turn of the century.  From left to right you’ll see the SEC’s rank among conference RPI (each year on March 25th, today’s date), it’s actual RPI, and the number of NCAA Tournament bids it received:

See the split?

In the last six seasons the SEC has had an average conference RPI rank of 5.33.  In the previous seven seasons, the SEC’s average rank among leagues was 2.14.  That’s a drop from second-best to fifth-best, on average.

Over the last six years the SEC’s average league-wide RPI has been .555.  In the seven seasons prior it was .574, never falling below .561.

Since the 2007-08 season, the SEC has not ranked better than fourth in conference RPI.  From 2000-01 thru 2006-07, the league finished worse than fourth only once.  It ranked as the best basketball conference in country three times in that span.  Five times the SEC ranked in the top two.

Naturally, the SEC never received fewer than five NCAA Tournament bids during its seven-year hot streak.  It’s received fewer then five on four different occasions in the six years since.

It’s pretty clear that the SEC’s decline can be traced back to the 2007-2008 basketball season.  Ironically, it was in January of 2007 that Florida won the first of the SEC’s seven-straight BCS championships.  Looking for a turning point in recent SEC athletics history?  Look no further than January ’07.

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“Put up again thy sword into his place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”

You’ll find that line in the King James Version of the Gospel of Matthew.  You might know it better in its more colloquial form: “live by the sword, die by the sword.”  And when it comes to the SEC’s two revenue sports, you can change the word “sword” to “reputation.”

With the SEC landing just three NCAA Tournament bids this year, there are plenty of league coaches talking about what went wrong:

Tennessee’s Cuonzo Martin: “It’s almost like a mid-major mentality in this league, when you’ve got your second-place team that doesn’t get in the NCAA Tournament.  This is a BCS league.  It’s one of the best leagues in America.  That shouldn’t happen.”

Kentucky’s John Calipari:  “(One of the) things that hurt us was the impression the league’s down.  Everyone seems to say it.  That’s why I tell the coaches we’ve got to brag about each other.  We’ve got to set that straight.”

Florida’s Billy Donovan:  “When you have coaching changes, when you have player turnover, when you have departures of really good players, it’s going to take some time.  The unfortunate part with all those transitions going on is you really pay the price in November. … What happens is your league gets labeled in November and December.”

But as the Associated Press points out, five SEC teams ranked lower than #230 in non-conference strength of schedule.  Those teams that did play tough non-conference competition lost twice as many games as they won.  SEC members went a combined 15-33 against the other five major conferences this year.

Coaches can try to spin it, but the Southeastern Conference was down this year and everyone knows it.  Its reputation was deserved this year, but Martin, Calipari and Donovan are still correct in suggesting that reputation matters on Selection Sunday.

We just find it ironic that the SEC is the league moaning about reputation.

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The Alabama football team won’t be in Washington, DC tomorrow after all.  The traditional White House meeting between the President and the reigning BCS champs has been postponed indefinitely due to inclement weather in the nation’s capital.

Nick Saban and his 2011 championship team met President Obama last April.  With spring practice starting in Tuscaloosa on March 16th it could be April before last season’s champs meet the Prez, too.