Nick Saban predicts SEC Championship will run through Austin

ESPN analyst Nick Saban made waves at SEC Media Days by predicting Texas football to play in the SEC Championship Game in their inaugural season in the conference in 2024. Saban said Texas will meet head coach Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game in December.

Nick Saban predicts Texas football to face Georgia in the SEC title game in 2024

"I think Georgia and Texas. But I don't think there's any team right now, or any coach that you would talk to including myself for many, many years that right now there's not some part of their team they're concerned about. How those problems, sort of, get resolved whether it's a young player that comes in and makes an impact, or an older player that develops consistency those are the question marks that I think make it impossible to make predictions right now."

Saban cited Texas's defense as an x-factor that could determine the Longhorns' ceiling for the 2024 season in the SEC. Texas's offense, and specifically their quarterback depth, separate them as a real contender in the SEC entering the 2024 campaign.

"I think Texas if their defense comes through and they can replace some of the interior people that they lost that were high draft picks and all that, they are really good offensively. Even though their quarterback has missed time, Ewers has missed time in the last couple of years, Manning was lights out in the spring game."

It was a bit surprising to see Saban leave out his former team, the Alabama Crimson Tide, from his SEC Championship Game prediction. Saban led the Tide to an SEC Championship, toppling No. 1 Georgia in Atlanta, and an appearance in the College Football Playoff last season.

Alabama has made it to three of the last four and four of the last six SEC Championship games.

The competition in the SEC will get even more difficult than it already was as college football's top conference for the last decade or two with the additions of Texas and the Oklahoma Sooners. The SEC now includes 16 member schools with Texas and Oklahoma in the mix.

And I think at least half the conference could realistically be in the conversation among the contenders for the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024-25.

What Saban's SEC Championship Game specifically means for the Longhorns, if it were to come to fruition this fall, is that the conference title would run through the Forty Acres. Saban's SEC title game matchup pick would be a rematch of the high-stakes regular season matchup at DKR between Texas and Georgia in mid-October.

For Texas to face Georgia twice this fall in the regular season and the SEC Championship Game would mean the Longhorns have a very thin margin for error in the other conference games this year.

Since Texas doesn't face other top SEC contenders during the regular season, such as Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and LSU, it's hard to see UT making a title game run with anything more than two losses in conference play this fall.

Saban wasn't the only ESPN analyst at SEC Media Days to pick Texas and Georgia for the SEC Championship Game on Monday. Another ESPN media personality heavily associated with Alabama, Greg McElroy, also picked Texas to face Georgia in the SEC title game this upcoming fall.

That's two ESPN analysts with a lot of football knowledge picking Texas to be in the SEC title game in its inaugural year in the conference.

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