Nick Saban avoids the rat poison, votes Alabama No. 2 in final coaches poll

Thanks to a thrilling win over Georgia in the SEC championship game, Alabama punched its ticket to the College Football Playoff as the near-unanimous No. 1 team in the country.

One of the reasons we say “near-unanimous” is a pair of voters in the final USA Today Coaches Poll voted Clemson over the Crimson Tide for No. 1. While you’d assume that bold choice would be in the name of contrarianism or something, it made a lot more sense when you discover that one of those two coaches doubting Alabama is … Alabama coach Nick Saban.

Nick Saban refuses to vote Alabama No. 1

As is tradition, USA Today unveiled the top 25 of every voter in the Coaches Poll for its final ballot of the year. Those final polls have always yielded some interesting ballots, like the time Bret Bielema voted a strong team from his old foe Ohio State as No. 12, but this Saban ballot might be an all-timer.

Of course, there is an obvious reason why Saban decided to rank his own team lower than nearly every other college coach in the country. Nick Saban is never happy unless someone is doubting his team, and you apparently have to take that into your own hands sometimes.

Last year, Saban famously likened praise from the media as “rat poison” for the mental game of his players, whom Saban believes will become overconfident and vulnerable if they buy into their own team’s hype. He even went so far as to request the media to write negative stories about the Tide earlier this season when the team’s hype was beginning to hit the stratosphere.

Funnily enough, one of Saban’s own players applied the reverse of this situation last season when he took a ballot from Clemson coach Dabo Swinney that had Alabama at No. 5 as motivation to beat down the Tigers in the CFP.

Doubt like that for the Tide hasn’t been flowing in this year, in which Alabama has gone wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in the Coaches Poll.

So naturally, Saban doesn’t want his players to think he believes they’re the best team in the country. And considering Alabama hasn’t been unanimously ranked at No. 1 in the Coaches Poll at any point this season, there’s a significant chance he’s been doing this all season. The whole game is a little silly, but it’s hard to knock Saban’s tactics given his continued success.

Nick Saban’s top 10 in the Coaches Poll

1. Clemson

2. Alabama

3. Notre Dame

4. Oklahoma

5. Georgia

6. Ohio State

7. Central Florida

8. Michigan

9. Florida

10. LSU

Outside of ranking his own team second, Saban’s top 10 adheres pretty closely to the overall Coaches Poll, with a relatively low ranking of Pac-12 champion Washington as the only major aberration.

It may also be notable that the Alabama coach doesn’t seem to buy the argument that Georgia is one of the four best teams in the country, as some argued following the Bulldogs’ loss to the Tide. Or maybe he’s just afraid of Oklahoma, his team’s Playoff opponent pulling a Saban itself and using a ranking that had them fifth or lower as motivation.

Who was the other coach that voted Clemson over Alabama?

In case you were curious about the identity of the other coach who ranked Clemson No. 1, it’s Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi.

That decision also makes some sense given the 42-10 pasting Narduzzi’s Panthers received at the hands of Clemson in the ACC championship. When your team only throws for eight yards in its most important game of the season, you have plenty of reason to tell everyone you can that your opponent was actually the best team in the country.

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