$80 million worth Nick Saban names one SEC powerhouse that's "not hard to play"

Retired Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban has settled seamlessly into his role as an analyst on ESPN's pregame show "College GameDay." The retired coach also has a weekly appearance on the popular "Pat McAfee Show."

Saban, worth $80 million per Celebrity Net Worth, appeared on the "Pat McAfee Show" on Thursday and shared the least difficult away venue for teams in the Southeastern Conference.

“But the only place you’re going to play in the SEC that’s not hard to play, Vanderbilt. When you play at Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have, and that’s no disrespect to them, it’s the truth. When we played in Nashville, we had more fans, Alabama fans, than what they had Vanderbilt fans,” Saban said (0:00-0:10).

The outspoken Saban namechecked the LSU Tigers and the Tennessee Volunteers where the Crimson Tide were beaten 52-49 in 2022 as some of the most difficult away games in the SEC.

“We’re at LSU and we go right down the field when Tua (Tagovailoa) is playing and we get down on the 20-yard-line, where the student section is, we got four straight false starts,” Saban said. “The players are all going, shaking their heads like, ‘I can’t hear, I can’t hear,’ so it forces you to go on silent.

"Huge disadvantage, because the defensive line can watch the ball, the offensive line has to watch the ball, so you have no advantage in cadence, and it’s — you’re sitting there saying, ‘This is tough.’ When we played at Tennessee a couple of years ago and got beat up there, that was about as wild as a situation as you’re ever going to get in."

Nick Saban accused of watering down SEC rivalry

One of the most enduring rivalries in the SEC is the one between the Auburn Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide. During his 17-year tenure in Tuscaloosa, Nick Saban had an incredible 12-5 record in the game spread over five permanent and one interim coach in the Iron Bowl.

Controversial ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum accused the retired coach of strangling the life out of the Alabama versus Auburn rivalry during an episode of "The Paul Finebaum Show."

"I don't believe the Alabama-Auburn rivalry in any way compares to what it did 15 or 20 years ago," Finebaum said. "Nick Saban choked the life out of it. It became, 'Well, maybe we can beat them every two or three years' vs. what it was back in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and even up to the day that Saban got there."

Several SEC coaches were glad to see the back of Saban when he retired after he made several regular season games seem like walk-overs during his 17-year stranglehold on the conference.