Inside Nick Saban’s decision to retire, Alabama’s pursuit of Kalen DeBoer and a week that changed college football
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Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The text messages on Greg Byrne’s cellphone were pouring in, more than 1,000 and counting.
Like most around the college football world, Alabama’s athletic director was still processing what had transpired about 2½ hours earlier that afternoon.
Nick Saban had walked into the team meeting room at the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility and told his players he was retiring. After 17 seasons, 206 wins, nine SEC championships and six national titles at Alabama, one of the greatest coaching runs in American sports history was over.
And Byrne was on the clock.
He understood the enormity of what he was tasked with, the momentous challenge of hiring the replacement for a legend.
“When you’re approaching a historic transition like that, you think about when Coach [Bear] Bryant retired, when John Wooden retired, but it’s also different now because of the transfer portal and NIL,” Byrne said. “But from an impact on a university and the sport itself, it’s as big a change as there has been in a long time.”
Saban spoke with his players for six minutes before leaving the room. Byrne then told the team he would have a new coach in place within 72 hours.
“It ended up being 49. I thought I would beat the 72-hour window but wanted to give myself some padding,” Byrne said.
Saban’s meeting with his players ended at 5:06 p.m. ET on Jan. 10. At 6:06 p.m. ET on Jan. 12, Byrne posted a photo on social media with smoke rising from a chimney — like the Vatican does when there’s a new pope, except this time it was the chimney of a Tuscaloosa barbecue joint — confirming that Washington’s Kalen DeBoer was Saban’s replacement.
Through conversations with the principals involved and other industry sources, ESPN retraced that head-spinning week, which ushered in a new era of Alabama football and, in some ways, reshaped the landscape of the entire sport.
BYRNE’S TWO-DAY WHIRLWIND was actually a year in the making. After the 2022 season, Saban informed Byrne he was nearing the end of his Hall of Fame coaching career.
“Greg, this is getting more and more difficult on me,” Saban told Byrne. “I’m not ready to do it now, but we’re going to have to start evaluating this more on a year-to-year basis.”
While hopeful Saban would keep coaching, Byrne knew deep down that the 72-year-old legend was giving him notice, so he quickly went to work. Byrne had his staff research the college head-coaching hires over the past 25 years from the winningest 25 programs during that span.
“Part of what I was trying to understand is what were the analytics, and our studies showed that 75% of the time you’re basically hiring a Group of 5 head coach, Power 5 coordinator or NFL coordinator,” Byrne said. “That’s not necessarily a negative, but when it comes to the theory that you’re going to hire just whoever you want, the percentages don’t support that.”
Then again, this was Alabama, so the Tide could set their sights higher than most any other school.
By Bama’s standards, the start of last season was a struggle, but Saban was exceedingly proud of how much the team improved. The Tide reeled off 11 straight wins, culminating with a 27-24 victory over Georgia in the SEC title game, snapping the two-time defending national champion Bulldogs’ 29-game winning streak.
“We weren’t a very good team those first few weeks of the season, but it’s a credit to those kids how far they came,” Saban said. “I’m not sure I’ve had a team that improved more over the course of the season.”
But the 27-20 overtime loss to Michigan in the CFP semifinal at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 was a hard one for Saban to digest. Not only was Saban upset about the way his team played, he was especially disheartened about some of the things that happened afterward — in the Rose Bowl locker room and back on campus when he met with some of the players.
“I want to be clear that wasn’t the reason, but some of those events certainly contributed,” Saban said of his decision to retire. “I was really disappointed in the way that the players acted after the game. You gotta win with class. You gotta lose with class. We had our opportunities to win the game and we didn’t do it, and then showing your ass and being frustrated and throwing helmets and doing that stuff … that’s not who we are and what we’ve promoted in our program.”
Once back in Tuscaloosa, as Saban began meeting with players, it became even more apparent to him that his message wasn’t resonating like it once did.
“I thought we could have a hell of a team next year, and then maybe 70 or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things: What assurances do I have that I’m going to play because they’re thinking about transferring, and how much are you going to pay me?” Saban recounted. “Our program here was always built on how much value can we create for your future and your personal development, academic success in graduating and developing an NFL career on the field.
“So I’m saying to myself, ‘Maybe this doesn’t work anymore, that the goals and aspirations are just different and that it’s all about how much money can I make as a college player?’ I’m not saying that’s bad. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying that’s never been what we were all about, and it’s not why we had success through the years.”
Saban had also grown weary of churning through assistant coaches every year. For example, Tommy Rees, who was hired during the 2023 offseason, was Saban’s seventh offensive coordinator in the past 11 years, and on occasion, there were nearly entire overhauls. After the 2018 season, seven assistants left for other jobs. Saban could tell that his age was becoming a factor in hiring coaches.
“People wanted assurances that I was going to be here for three or four years, and it became harder to make those assurances,” Saban said. “But the thing I loved about coaching the most was the relationships that you had with players, and those things didn’t seem to have the same meaning as they once did.”
Saban and his wife, Terry, left for their home in Jupiter Island, Florida, on Thursday, Jan. 4, two days after flying back from Los Angeles. They always get away for several days right after the season, but this trip was different.
“That’s one of the reasons we went, to discuss whether I would keep coaching,” Saban said. “But she didn’t know. I didn’t really know. It’s just not something I think about during the season, but that was the time to think about it and talk about it, for both of us.”
They returned to Tuscaloosa the next Monday night, Jan. 8. During their time in Florida, there were some deep conversations but no final decision.
“I don’t know if there’s ever a good time to do it,” Saban said. “I felt like my age was starting to impact a lot of things. The older you get, the harder it is to sustain it at the level you want to and feel like you’re doing a great job.”
While in Florida, Saban said he talked to Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells, who has a home in that area. Saban said he also talked with former Alabama coach Gene Stallings about his decision.
“Both of them said you never know quite when it’s the right time, but you kind of also know in the back of your mind when it’s the right time,” Saban said. “And that’s sort of the way I was feeling.”
Still wrestling with his decision, Saban called Byrne while he was in Florida and asked whether he would be in Tuscaloosa on Tuesday. Typically when they met, Byrne would drop by Saban’s office because Saban was always so tied up with football-related duties. But this time, Saban went to see Byrne in his office. They talked for nearly an hour.
“I wasn’t going to believe it until I heard it from him for sure, and he still didn’t say it was for sure,” Byrne said.
But Byrne knew where things seemed to be heading.
On Wednesday, Jan. 10, Saban was in his office at his regular time, around 7 a.m. Even staff members who had been with him the longest said it was business as usual.
“But that’s just him. He was going to work right up until the very end, and that’s what he did,” said head athletic trainer Jeff Allen, who came to Alabama with Saban in 2007. “It’s a big part of why he’s the best to ever do it, that singular focus.”
Saban met with people on his staff that Wednesday and conducted Zoom interviews with prospective assistant coaches. The gravity of what he was planning to do was surreal even for him.
“I’m sitting there looking at the clock, talking to Ms. Terry, and you know you’ve got a team meeting coming up. I guess I still wasn’t 100 percent sure,” Saban said. “I thought it was the right time for us. I didn’t like how it would impact the program, the players, the coaches, the people in the organization, the university. That part of it was really hard. But it was inevitable that it was going to happen at some point in time, and I didn’t want to ride the program down.
“It was just the right time.”
SABAN WAS ADAMANT that his players hear the news from him first, and he addressed them in the team meeting room. Byrne and members of the Alabama football staff also were present. There was an eerie hush as Saban exited the room, and Byrne then stepped to the podium and spoke to the players. He later met with the team’s leadership group, then conducted an internal meeting with administrative staff members in his conference room.
As Byrne left campus Wednesday evening, he began reaching out to former players from different eras. He talked to Joe Namath, Mark Ingram, Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith.
“Not to discuss candidates, but it was more, ‘What do you think if you were in my shoes?'” Byrne said. “Because they may have had a piece of information I hadn’t thought about, which is good.”
Equally important, Byrne said, was the alignment at the university with president Stuart Bell and the board of trustees.
“We were all ready and all on the same page,” Byrne said.
From the outset, Washington’s DeBoer and Florida State’s Mike Norvell were at the top of Byrne’s list. Both had what Byrne was looking for: a proven head coach who had won on a big stage and shown the propensity to develop players. Byrne declined to go into detail about whom he talked to first or his pecking order. But he had serious conversations with both coaches the day after Saban retired.
Throughout the interview process, Byrne was in contact with Bell as well as with Saban and Mike Brock, the athletics committee chair of the board of trustees. Byrne had to deal with only one agent as Jimmy Sexton represents both DeBoer and Norvell.
Immediately, there was speculation that Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin were possible candidates. Swinney played and coached at Alabama, and Kiffin worked at Alabama under Saban. Both were part of national championship teams at Alabama.
Byrne said there were conversations in his circle about a handful of candidates, but sources told ESPN that neither Swinney nor Kiffin was seriously in the mix. Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, who, like Kiffin, is also represented by Sexton, was another prominent name mentioned in media reports, but Alabama’s leadership knew Sarkisian wasn’t going to leave Texas, especially with the Longhorns moving to the SEC next season, sources said.
As expected, Sarkisian sent out a social media post at 11:50 p.m. ET that Thursday saying it was a great day to be a Longhorn with a “Horns up” image. A day later, ESPN reported that Sarkisian was nearing a deal for a contract extension with Texas.
Oregon’s Dan Lanning, who worked as a graduate assistant under Saban at Alabama, made it clear earlier Thursday that he wasn’t a candidate despite erroneous reports that he had been spotted in Tuscaloosa. Lanning, also represented by Sexton, released a video at noon Thursday confirming that he was staying put after two seasons in Eugene.
It didn’t really matter, though, because by that time Byrne was bearing down on his top two targets. He and his wife, Regina, met with DeBoer and his wife, Nicole, on Thursday in downtown Seattle. There were also serious discussions with Norvell that day.
In fact, in the wee hours of that Friday morning, the fear among Florida State officials was that Norvell was close to trading his FSU garnet for Alabama crimson. Sources told ESPN that Florida State was poised to move quickly if that happened and that Kiffin would be a prime candidate.
Norvell, who in his fourth season at FSU led the Seminoles to a 13-1 record and ACC championship, declined to say whether he was offered the Alabama job, but he acknowledged to ESPN later Friday afternoon that the past 24 hours had been chaotic as he considered his options.
“You respect the place. You respect the position,” Norvell said of Alabama. “At the end of the day, it still comes down to the right fit. It still comes down to the place you want to be.”
There were sighs of relief around FSU’s campus when athletic director Michael Alford posted a tweet at 11:51 a.m. Friday that indicated a deal with Norvell was in place. Then at 12:07 p.m., Norvell took to social media to confirm he was staying put.
Shortly thereafter, news broke that Norvell had agreed to an extension on his contract that would pay him more than $10 million annually over the next eight years. Part of the agreement was a reassurance to Norvell that more money would be committed for his football administrative staff and a larger recruiting budget. A new stand-alone football complex was already under construction, along with upgrades to the stadium.
DeBOER’S EMOTIONS HAD run the gamut since the final seconds ticked off the clock at the national championship game in Houston. His Washington team fell one win short of a title, losing 34-13 to Michigan.
As the Huskies returned to Seattle the next morning, DeBoer said the last thing on his mind was that he might be on the verge of changing jobs. After all, it felt as if he was just starting his climb at Washington. The year before he arrived, the Huskies were 4-8.
“I mean, that Tuesday was hard,” DeBoer said. “We’re flying back from the game, and you’re just trying to get yourself back. I was texting kids on the plane just about how I felt about ’em, how strong I felt, especially the guys that were done with their careers. You’re working through all of that.”
On Wednesday morning, DeBoer woke up in the Pacific Northwest refreshed and ready to go.
“I was like, ‘OK, quit feeling sorry for yourself and let’s get up and let’s go. We’ve got to go win this thing. There’s another step here at Washington,'” DeBoer told himself.
Little did he know that his world was about to change over the next 48 hours. Early that afternoon (West Coast time), DeBoer heard the news that Saban was retiring.
“It wasn’t even on my radar, not sure it was on anybody’s radar,” DeBoer said. “And then immediately when it happened, people from all over start calling and you’re getting all these questions. I guess I knew with everything we’d accomplished that you might have some inquiries about jobs — but not that one.”
Later Wednesday evening, DeBoer got the initial call that Alabama was interested in talking. He had never met Byrne, but Byrne had long been a fan of DeBoer’s and the way he had won everywhere he’d been, including grinding his way through the NAIA ranks.
“It just happened so fast, all of it,” DeBoer said. “I get the call Wednesday night they want to talk. We’re meeting on Thursday morning, and I was offered the job on Friday morning. I didn’t have time to talk to a lot of people. I just knew I wanted the job.”
One of the first questions Byrne asked DeBoer during their Thursday meeting was the inevitable: “How do you respond to the narrative that you never want to be the one who follows a legend but rather the one that follows the one who follows the legend?”
DeBoer’s response was exactly what Byrne wanted to hear.
“I’m going to embrace it,” DeBoer said. “There’s only one person that’s ever going to get to do that.”
Washington did its best to keep DeBoer, who rejected two contract offers from the Huskies. The first one came during the season, when DeBoer passed on an extension that would have taken him to a maximum of $9 million annually. The final rejection came that Thursday during Alabama’s talks with DeBoer, when Washington offered a base salary of $9 million that would have maxed out at $9.6 million. DeBoer earned $4.2 million last fall. His buyout was $12 million.
When DeBoer was offered the job Friday morning, one of the first calls he made was to Saban.
“I picked up the phone and reached out,” DeBoer said. “It was great, just, out of respect. I hope he knows how much it means to me to be coming in behind him.”
By 2 p.m. ET Friday, Alabama was finalizing a deal with DeBoer. He told his players later that afternoon that he was taking the Alabama job before boarding a private jet bound for Tuscaloosa that evening.
“The hardest part is when you get put in that spot where the call does come, especially this one just because now you’re a head coach,” DeBoer said. “You’re not a coordinator going to a head-coaching job. You’re not at a Group of 5 school where you’re going from Fresno State to Washington. This was the toughest one of them all.
“We loved Washington, the people there, our players, everything we’d accomplished in two years. But I also just loved everything about Greg Byrne and our conversation together and everything that Alabama football stands for, the proud tradition of this program and how deep it runs.”
When DeBoer climbed off the jet in Tuscaloosa, fans were lining the fences at the airport to congratulate him. Later that evening, he met with the Alabama team for the first time.
“I hope you appreciate what you’re a part of,” DeBoer told the players. “That’s why I wanted to be here. This place is not normal. It’s special.”
Even before his first day on campus was over, he knew the short-term challenges ahead were already piling up.
Key players were entering the transfer portal or talking about it, and coaches were leaving. Two of the Tide’s most promising young players left within a week of DeBoer’s hiring, safety Caleb Downs to Ohio State and offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor to Iowa. There were also coaches coming and going, as DeBoer worked to assemble his staff and had to go through two waves of hiring assistants.
One of the things that was so heartening to DeBoer during that time was the way some of the pillars on Alabama’s team — Tyler Booker, Deontae Lawson, Malachi Moore and Jalen Milroe — remained committed during all the changes.
“We’ve embraced the change and, as a group, want to finish what we started,” Lawson told ESPN. “We’re not running from change. We’re buying in and know we’re in good hands. We have full trust in Coach DeBoer and the coaches he’s bringing in.”
DeBoer understands how some would look at the sheer number of players leaving during that time — 10 players entered the portal in the nine days after Saban’s announcement, and more than 25 did over the course of the offseason — and think Alabama’s ship was taking on water. But he never viewed it that way.
“We had about 30 guys, and those are rough numbers, that have come into the program, and actually more than that when you count the guys coming in this summer,” said DeBoer, adding that Alabama might add some players during the spring portal. “There was some attrition that needed to happen, and some of it was happening before I even got this job.”
With his first spring practice at Alabama opening earlier this week, DeBoer said he hasn’t spent any time thinking about everything that led him to the Tide. He just knows he’s here and ready to take on perhaps the biggest challenge any coach has ever faced in college football.
“I couldn’t say no to that challenge,” DeBoer said.
Sports
Why everyone — including Draymond Green and Steve Kerr — sees Macklin Celebrini as a can’t-miss prospect
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Emily Kaplan, ESPN
On a Saturday night in January 2023, the Golden State Warriors had an off night in Chicago.
Draymond Green didn’t want to go to dinner or out on the town. He had another idea: going to the suburbs to watch junior hockey.
“How often do you get an opportunity to see Sidney Crosby at 17?” Green reasoned.
The next big thing in hockey is Macklin Celebrini, the unanimous No. 1 prospect of the 2024 NHL draft class. Celebrini is also the son of Rick Celebrini, the Warriors vice president of player health and performance.
NHL Draft lottery: Tonight on ESPN/ESPN+, 6:30 p.m. ET
“I was like, really? You wanna go?” Rick Celebrini said to Green. “I mean, it’s actually not close to where we stay with the team.”
“I don’t care,” Green replied. He wanted to support the Celebrinis.
So a group of Warriors staffers and players arranged a ride to Geneva, Illinois.
“We found out a lot of stuff that night,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Like Macklin’s nickname was The Cheetah. We didn’t know that until the announcer said something.”
NHL scouts have been dazzled by The Cheetah for years because he is the complete package: elite hockey sense, skill, shot and, yes, his motor. The 5-foot-11 two-way center is also known for his desire to win — and ability to bring his teammates along with him, making everyone great.
But even the best athletes have off nights, and according to Macklin, that was one of them.
“It was not a good game,” Macklin said. “We didn’t play very well.”
Once again, Green didn’t care. He saw enough.
Macklin was just 16, playing against more physically mature 20-year-olds. Everyone on the ice also knew the NHL buzz surrounding him and wanted to make their mark. Opponents kept checking Macklin, again and again.
“One guy comes out of nowhere and just chucks him and Mack stumbles over and he comes right back — chucks the guy, doesn’t fall,” Green recalled. “Mack hits him again to make sure the guy falls. [Macklin] just takes off to the penalty box. That’s going to suit him going forward. There’s always going to be a target on your back. You’re the projected No. 1 pick and I’m not waiting on my bruiser to come lay you out. I’m going to lay you out myself. That said everything I needed to know.”
Macklin Celebrini grew up in Vancouver as the second of four kids. He also played soccer until he was 12, the sport both of his parents played. But hockey always had his heart.
“I started off skating, like any kid would, just skating laps at a public rink,” Macklin said. “Then once I had a stick in my hand, it was game over.” That may be an understatement. At age 10, Macklin competed in the prestigious Brick Invitational Tournament. He had an intense schedule leading up to that tournament, and his team ended up winning.
“It was amazing. But afterward his coach told me, Macklin needs a break after this,” his mom, Robyn, recalled. “Like, hide his skates for two weeks, keep him off the ice.”
Robyn did in fact hide Macklin’s skates.
“That lasted two days,” she said, with a smile. It didn’t help that the local hockey club was within walking distance. Robyn eventually succumbed to Macklin’s pleas.
That Brick Tournament was also the first time the Celebrinis realized Macklin could command a locker room. Rick Celebrini’s favorite story about his son was relayed by one of the team’s assistant coaches.
“The first practice, all the kids were really nervous and quiet in the dressing room, and nobody was talking to each other,” Rick Celebrini said. “And Macklin, I guess he picked this up from hearing some [older players] at his hockey club, but all of the sudden goes in front of everyone and says: ‘Listen up, guys. We only have one rule in this dressing room. There’s no effing swearing in this dressing room.'”
The entire room erupted with laughter. The 10-year-old effectively broke the ice.
The Celebrini kids had exposure to professional athletes from an early age. Rick Celebrini worked for the Vancouver Canucks and MLS Whitecaps before getting the gig with the Warriors. Rick is also a renowned physiotherapist who worked closely with Steve Nash since his rookie season, helping the Hall of Fame point guard overcome a low back condition.
Or, as he’s known in the Celebrini household, Uncle Steve.
“When Macklin was younger, there was sort of almost like an osmosis,” Rick Celebrini said. “He wasn’t really paying attention, but I believe he took a lot of it in, especially the early days when I’d work with Steve Nash and I would spend four or five hours on the court and in the gym.”
As Macklin got older, and Rick took the job with the Warriors in 2018, the lessons became more acute.
“Just being around some professional athletes, you learn how detail-oriented they are,” Macklin said. “How they take care of their bodies, how they approach every day, even in the offseason when it doesn’t really have a translation on the season. Every day they’re still doing something to take care of themselves.”
From an early age, Macklin was determined to reach the highest levels — and began to differentiate himself. “Every step of the way he has set goals that seem almost unreachable,” Rick Celebrini said. “And each step of the way he’s surprised us.”
Macklin enrolled at Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Minnesota in 2020, the same prep school that helped develop one of his idols, Crosby. Macklin’s statistics during that 14AUU season are so absurd, they almost read like a misprint: 51 goals and 141 points in 50 games. After three years there, he was off to the Chicago Steel for junior hockey (46 goals and 86 points in 50 games).
A standout performance at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship in April 2023 firmly cemented his draft stock. Macklin matched Canada’s single-tournament scoring record while making a gorgeous game-winning overtime goal in the bronze medal game. He scored the most points by a Canadian player 16 or younger — edging out Connor Bedard and Connor McDavid.
This past season, as a 17-year-old freshman at Boston University, he won the Hobey Baker Award as best player in the country.
The head of one NHL scouting department told ESPN that Macklin was “as complete a prospect as there is” and said he’s more than ready to make an impact in the NHL next season.
Macklin said he models his game after two-way centers like Jonathan Toews, Brayden Point and Crosby.
“Those guys that do it on both sides of the puck,” he said. “They’re leaders on their teams and they also drive offense.”
He cites Crosby and Patrick Kane as his favorite players to watch growing up.
“The Blackhawks and Penguins both made their runs to the Cups,” he said. “And some of my best memories were just watching them play in the playoffs and battle.” Rick helped Macklin and his siblings — brothers Aiden, 19; RJ, 12; and sister, Charlie, 15 — along each of their athletic journeys, where he balanced the line between trainer and dad.
“When they’re working out, I tell them there has to be a professionalism to your approach and what you do. And that’s when I’m not Dad,” Rick said. “But in their times when they’re vulnerable, then I become Dad, and I’ll always be Dad.”
The family is extremely close, texting and supporting each other constantly. In his interview with ESPN, Macklin wanted to make sure he gave love to his mom, citing her as the one who keeps it all together.
Aiden, a 2023 sixth-round draft pick of the Canucks, was teammates (and roommates) with Macklin at Boston University this season. The 6-foot-1 defenseman is a late bloomer. RJ’s hockey highlights have already gone viral on social media. Meanwhile, Charlie is a fast-rising star on the junior tennis circuit.
“When Rick first got [to Golden State] his kids would be running up and down the court playing pickup 3-on-3, with the whole family, Robyn too,” Kerr said. “It’s so funny seeing them as kids and then all of a sudden, you find out the two older boys are big-time hockey players.
“And then I started to really ask Rick more about his kids and what they were doing. Then there’s little Charlie, the tennis player. And then I realized, Rick’s cooking something up in his house. … He’s just churning out athletes over there.”
There’s a reason the Warriors wanted to support Rick. He’s been crucial to their culture and success.
“He’s one of the best human beings I know, and that’s straight from the heart,” Kerr said. “He’s got this great combination of emotional intelligence and technical knowledge of his field and humor and authority. The players see him every day, and so for us it means so much that he’s one of the first people they see and feel, and he just sets an incredible tone.”
Green called Rick “a giver.”
“He gives his time, he gives his energy, he gives his effort,” Green said. “He’s a magician when it comes to the body. He’s a magician when it comes to the mind. He is our secret weapon and he’s an incredible father. He’s an incredible man.”
Green said he checks in with Rick about Macklin about two to three times per week. Green knows a decent amount about hockey, growing up in Michigan and attending Michigan State. By appearances, Green could tell Macklin had the “it” factor when he first met the pre-teen.
“I’m like, ‘Yep, Mack, you’re definitely a player,'” Green said. “‘You got the hockey hair.'”
While getting to know Macklin over the years, Green was struck by something else. “He’s quiet but super confident, and is not afraid to share that confidence with you,” Green said. “We don’t get the opportunity to see him often, but every chance, he has a smile on his face. He walks in the room like he belongs in the room. Like he’s supposed to be there.
“It’s not something over the top where it’s like, ‘Hey, I need you to realize that I’m here.’ You feel the seriousness when you talk to him. Like, he wants to work, he wants to be great. I have no doubt in my mind that he will be.”
At the Steel game in 2023, the Warriors contingent — minus Rick — left after the second period. After all, it was a long drive back to Chicago. Naturally, Macklin scored after they had departed.
When Rick met Macklin in the locker room afterward, his son gave him a good hockey chirp to pass along to the Warriors.
“Dad,” Macklin said, “I go to your games all the time, and they’re boring as hell, and I don’t leave.”
Rick relayed the story to the Warriors the next day, and the room erupted in laughter.
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Bill Connelly, ESPN Staff Writer
Over the first quarter of the 21st century, Washington State and Oregon State combined for five AP top-10 finishes and shares of two conference titles — modest totals, sure, but superior to those of Arizona, Arizona State, Cal and Colorado combined. Over the past six seasons, Wazzu’s average SP+ rating ranked fifth in the Pac-12, Oregon State’s seventh. They have been solid mid-tier, power-conference programs in recent times, and their highs have been higher than those of many of their peers.
None of this matters, of course. In last summer’s depressing conference realignment free-for-all, the Pac-12’s leaders failed to come up with a sufficient television deal, and, with furrowed brows and great displays of consternation, eight programs made moves they said they preferred not to make: Oregon and Washington followed USC and UCLA to the Big Ten with diminished media rights shares; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah left for the Big 12; and Cal and Stanford left for a conference with “Atlantic” in its title (ACC).
Meanwhile, the programs in faraway Corvallis, Oregon, and Pullman, Washington, were left without a home. OSU and Wazzu have maintained the rights to the Pac-12 brand while forming short-term scheduling coalitions with the Mountain West (in football) and West Coast Conference (in other sports). But the Pac-12 as we knew it no longer exists, there is no longer a power conference based in the Pacific time zone, and Oregon State and Washington State have been, for all intents and purposes, left behind.
Following all of these demoralizing developments, both programs began 2023 with a point to prove. Washington State beat two ranked teams (Wisconsin and Oregon State) and began October unbeaten and 13th in the AP poll. And despite the loss to the Cougars, Oregon State spent the entire regular season ranked and rose as high as 10th heading into the back half of November. But Wazzu lost seven of its final eight games to finish 5-7, and after an 8-2 start, Oregon State first suffered a narrow loss to unbeaten Washington, then lost to Oregon and Notre Dame by a combined 71-15.
Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith left for the Big Ten’s Michigan State and took some assistants with him, and in addition lost three NFL draftees. The Beavers then proceeded to lose starting quarterback DJ Uiagalelei (Florida State), QB-of-the-future Aidan Chiles (Michigan State), star running back Damien Martinez (Miami), No. 1 receiver Silas Bolden (Texas), tight end Jack Velling (Michigan State), all-conference guard Tanner Miller (Michigan State), linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold (USC), rush end Sione Lolohea (Florida State), safety Akili Arnold (USC) and corner Jermod McCoy (Tennessee) to schools in power-conference programs. Wazzu’s losses were less extensive following the team’s late collapse, but quarterback Cam Ward (Miami), receiver Josh Kelly (Texas Tech) and cornerback Javan Robinson (Arizona State) departed for power-conference programs.
What has happened to these programs is just impossibly cruel and demoralizing. But if there’s any reassurance whatsoever to be found, it’s that these schools are not alone. Other programs have been left behind before, and those that kept their acts together and figured out ways to continue fielding strong teams were eventually rewarded. (Others, not so much.) Here are the stories of 10 postwar programs that lost their relative power-conference status and what happened next.
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Raiding the Pacific Coast | SWC demise
Big East Frankenstein | What’s ahead for Pac-2
Culling of the Pacific Coast Conference
The Pacific Coast Conference — which became the AAWU, which became the Pac-8, which became the Pac-10, which became the Pac-12 — was a pretty dramatic place. At the end of the 1940s, it consisted of Cal, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington and Washington State, but the loftier programs in that bunch rarely deigned to play the two lowliest members.
In its final 10 seasons in the league before officially getting the boot in 1950, Montana played 31 games against PCC foes: 10 against Idaho (four home, six away), five against Washington State (one home, four away), four against Washington (all away), three against Oregon State (one home, two away) and nine against the other five members (all away). Throughout the 1950s, Idaho basically played home-and-homes with Oregon, Oregon State and Wazzu and got occasional road games with Washington. Conferences were loose affiliations in those days, and none of the California schools wanted an affiliation with the Grizzlies or Vandals if it meant acknowledging them in any way.
In 1959, following mudslinging and accusations of slush-fund activities at a number of schools — Washington, UCLA, USC, Cal (though Cal’s was more “fake work program” than “slush fund,” if we’re picking nits) — the PCC fell apart. The most ambitious schools of the bunch (basically the ones accused of the rule-breaking, plus Stanford) began angling to create a national “Airplane Conference” with eastern independents such as Notre Dame, Penn State, Pitt, Syracuse and the service academies. (In a way, in finally ditching Wazzu, Washington accomplished what it has been trying to accomplish since the 1950s.) The Airplane Conference concept eventually fell apart, and Oregon, Oregon State and Wazzu were eventually allowed back in to the party. Idaho very predictably was not.
The first two members of the Left Behind club didn’t see their lives change all that much because, though Idaho had some sprightly moments, neither played much like a power program anyway.
Last 10 years before demotion: 4.5 average wins, 18.7% average SP+ percentile rating
First 10 years after demotion: 2.3 average wins, 5.6% average SP+ percentile rating
Montana joined the Skyline Conference — made up primarily of future Mountain West teams — for most of the 1950s and, finding it difficult to compete there, too, helped form the lower-division Big Sky Conference in 1963. Things have worked out pretty well for the Grizzlies there: They’ve won or shared 19 Big Sky titles, plus FCS national titles in 1995 and 2001.
Last 10 years before demotion: 3.3 average wins, 26.9% average SP+ percentile rating
First 10 years after demotion: 3.4 average wins, 20.3% average SP+ percentile rating
Idaho held on to a bit more ambition than Montana, for better or worse. The Vandals were also founding Big Sky members and participated there in other sports, but after getting the PCC boot they remained at college football’s top level as an independent until 1974.
After some success at the FCS level, they joined ambitious Boise State in jumping back up to the FBS in the 1990s. Over 22 seasons, they bowled three times and bounced from the Big West to the Sun Belt to the WAC and back to the Sun Belt. But they weren’t good enough for the Mountain West and, without a natural home, officially dropped back down to the FCS in 2018. They’ve made the playoffs there the past two years.
Demise of the Southwest Conference
The dawn of the superconference brought quite a bit of expansion. The Big Ten added Penn State in 1993; the SEC attempted to add Arkansas, Texas and Texas A&M before settling for just the Hogs and South Carolina in 1992; and the Pac-10 weighed expansion into intriguing TV markets such as Denver (Colorado, Colorado State, Air Force), Dallas (SMU, TCU) and Houston (Houston, Rice) before bailing on the idea.
Eventually, the Big 12 formed from the members of the Big Eight and half the scandal-plagued SWC. With the Pac-10 choosing against expansion, that left the other half of the SWC on the outside looking in. Over the SWC’s final five seasons, the abandoned half — Houston, Rice, SMU and TCU — had gone a combined 71-144-6 with one bowl appearance among those schools. NCAA sanctions had crushed Houston and SMU in particular, and they had all chosen a bad time to not have their respective acts together.
It was a long journey back, but with SMU joining the ACC in 2024, three of the SWC’s four left-behind programs are now back on power-conference rosters. (Yes, we’re still calling the ACC and Big 12 power conferences even if the Big Ten and SEC have formed a big two of sorts.)
Last 10 years before demotion: 4.8 average wins, 33.8% average SP+ percentile rating
First 10 years after demotion: 7.3 average wins, 48.9% average SP+ percentile rating
After a combination of NCAA sanctions and general ineptitude had rendered TCU an afterthought of a football program — the Horned Frogs finished above .500 just twice in the 22 seasons from 1972 to 1993 — it was beginning to show signs of life under Pat Sullivan when the SWC fell apart. That quickly ceased, however: The Horned Frogs went 5-17 in their first two seasons in the expanded WAC, and Sullivan was replaced by Dennis Franchione.
Under first Franchione and then Gary Patterson, however, TCU turned itself around. It also had no qualms in jumping from opportunity to opportunity. In the WAC, Conference USA and Mountain West, the Frogs won double-digit games nine times from 2000 to 2011, peaking with a 36-3 run, three top-10 finishes and a Rose Bowl win from 2008 to 2010. That, plus their residence in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, made them obvious candidates for Big 12 membership when the conference looked to replenish recent realignment losses in 2012. They’ve enjoyed four more top-10 finishes over the past 10 years. This is the model left-behind program.
Last 10 years before demotion: 4.6 average wins, 46.5% average SP+ percentile rating
First 10 years after demotion: 4.4 average wins, 25.0% average SP+ percentile rating
It took Houston a bit longer to get its act together. The Cougars were indeed waylaid by NCAA sanctions and had won just four games in the past three seasons when they became founding members of Conference USA in 1996. They averaged only four wins per season before hiring Art Briles in 2003. Briles and successor Kevin Sumlin raised the profile of the program with pure offensive firepower, and in 2011 Houston enjoyed its first ranked finish in 21 years.
The Cougars joined the remnants of the Big East in the freshly named American Athletic Conference in 2013, and under Tom Herman in 2015 they went 13-1 and beat Florida State in a New Year’s Six bowl. It has been an up-and-down ride since, as neither Major Applewhite nor Dana Holgorsen were able to generate any post-Herman consistency, but a combination of obvious upside and the Houston market got them into the Big 12 in 2023.
Last 10 years before demotion: 2.6 average wins, 17.3% average SP+ percentile rating
First 10 years after demotion: 3.8 average wins, 18.3% average SP+ percentile rating
At least Houston didn’t get the death penalty. After nearly winning the national title in 1981 at the peak of the Pony Excess days, SMU slowly slipped under the steady drip of sanctions, then was forced to cease all football operations in 1987-88 when it refused to, uh, stop cheating.
As it turns out, the death penalty works. SMU returned to play in 1989 and enjoyed just one above-.500 season (a bowl-less 6-5 campaign under Mike Cavan in 1997) over the next 20 years as a member of first the WAC, then Conference USA. June Jones managed to create both an offensive identity and a steady bowl presence in the early 2010s, however, and after falling apart in their first seasons in the AAC, the Mustangs rebounded once more. They enjoyed their first 10-win season in 35 years under Sonny Dykes in 2019, and after Dykes left for rival TCU a couple of years later, Rhett Lashlee led SMU to its first ranked finish in 39 years last fall. This recent success, combined with the Dallas market and a willingness to gamble by foregoing all media rights revenue for a few years, earned them an ACC invitation.
Last 10 years before demotion: 3.7 average wins, 29.5% average SP+ percentile rating
First 10 years after demotion: 4.8 average wins, 26.8% average SP+ percentile rating
Rice … is a hard job. It was a hard job in the SWC, and it has remained a hard job in Conference USA and, as of 2023, the AAC. The Owls probably miss playing their bigger in-state rivals on a more frequent basis, but they have basically the same program as they did before being left behind, only they average a bit higher win total with easier competition.
Semi-demise of the Big East
As a football entity, the Big East was both a product and victim of the conference realignment era. A basketball powerhouse in the 1980s, it attempted to secure a bright future by bringing in football brands such as Miami and Virginia Tech in the 1990s and found some success. But it was always a Frankenstein of basketball and football schools.
In the 2000s, the conference lost Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC and grabbed whatever it could to survive — DePaul and Marquette on the basketball side, Cincinnati, Louisville (which it would also lose to the ACC) and USF on the football side — and as it prepared to raid the mid-major ranks for more football programs in the early-2010s, the basketball schools decided enough was enough. They formed a new Big East, and the remaining football schools formed the AAC.
The Big East had a power-conference designation when the BCS existed, but when the College Football Playoff came about in 2014, it no longer recognized the AAC as a power. That meant four Big East holdovers — Cincinnati, UConn, USF and Temple — all entered the left-behind zone. (You could technically say the same for the AAC’s four 2013 additions: Houston, Memphis, SMU and UCF. But we’ll say they weren’t around long enough to get truly left behind at this time.)
Last 10 years before demotion: 8.0 average wins, 66.9% average SP+ percentile rating
First 10 years after demotion: 8.6 average wins, 61.2% average SP+ percentile rating
Under Brian Kelly and Butch Jones, Cincinnati enjoyed five seasons of double-digit wins and four ranked finishes in the Big East’s final six seasons of football existence. This program deserved to be in a power conference but suddenly wasn’t. But like TCU, it went about proving itself after an initial setback. Luke Fickell led the Bearcats to 44 wins in four seasons from 2018 to 2021. They won back-to-back AAC titles in 2020-21, first reaching a New Year’s Six bowl, then reaching the CFP (where, as I will forever remind people, they fared better against Alabama than Michigan did against Georgia).
When the Big 12 began to look for new programs following Oklahoma’s and Texas’ announced departures, Cincinnati had to be the first program on the list. Granted, it face-planted upon arrival, replacing Wisconsin-bound Fickell with Scott Satterfield and promptly going 3-9. But this is still a program worthy of the power designation it was stripped of for nine years.
Last 10 years before demotion: 6.9 average wins, 61.1% average SP+ percentile rating
First 10 years after demotion: 3.0 average wins, 10.3% average SP+ percentile rating
After a long football life in the Yankee Conference, UConn grew ambitious enough to attempt FBS life in the early 2000s. The Huskies had a readymade spot in a power conference waiting for them, and they met the moment for a little while, winning either eight or nine games in five of their first seven Big East seasons. But things fell off course when Randy Edsall left for Maryland in 2011, and they were in no way playing like a power-conference program when they lost their power designation.
They left the AAC to return to the Big East in non-football sports, and they’ve been independent since 2020. Life has been mostly hard. Since earning a share of the Big East title — and winning the tiebreakers to earn a Fiesta Bowl bid — in 2010, they’ve suffered 12 straight losing records. They were left behind, but they were already in the process of falling apart when that happened.
Last 10 years before demotion: 6.5 average wins, 62.2% average SP+ percentile rating
First 10 years after demotion: 5.0 average wins, 34.4% average SP+ percentile rating
USF made this “major college football” thing look pretty easy at first. As a startup program under their first coach, Jim Leavitt, the Bulls enjoyed winning seasons in their first four FBS seasons, then joined the Big East in 2005, bowled for six straight years and spent time in the AP top 10 in both 2007 and 2008. But they fell from eight wins to five to three under Leavitt’s replacement, Skip Holtz — like at UConn, things had already fallen apart when South Florida lost its power-conference designation — and their years in the AAC have been a roller coaster: a combined 6-18 in 2013-14, then 21-4 in 2016-17, then 4-29 in 2020-22.
The Bulls were too putrid to earn a look from the Big 12 in the early 2020s, even as it was pilfering conference rival UCF. They could be on their way to another high under Alex Golesh — he’s one of the sport’s more intriguing young coaches — and the Tampa-St. Petersburg market might be intriguing enough to make them candidates for future expansion of a Big 12 or ACC if they can both get and keep their act together. But for now, it seems like the AAC is about the right weight class.
If we don’t count Houston and SMU, Temple might be the only program to ever get left behind twice. The Owls were booted from the Big East in 2005 for general ineptitude — in 14 years of Big East membership, they averaged 2.1 wins and never won more than four games in a season. But after they got their act together in the refuge of the MAC, they were brought back to the Big East in 2012 … just in time for it to become the AAC in 2013.
Last 10 years before first demotion: 2.4 average wins, 22.8% average SP+ percentile rating
First 10 years after first demotion: 4.8 average wins, 26.0% average SP+ percentile rating
Last 10 years before second demotion: 4.3 average wins, 23.6% average SP+ percentile rating
First 10 years after second demotion: 5.8 average wins, 39.1% average SP+ percentile rating
This has always been a pretty hard job — the facilities are crammed into one corner of Temple’s metropolitan campus, and the Owls play off campus at the Philadelphia Eagles’ far-too-cavernous Lincoln Financial Field. When they make a strong hire, like Al Golden (2006-10) or Matt Rhule (2013-16), they can rise pretty high, whether they’re in a power conference or not. But the floor remains pretty low, as they’ve rediscovered of late.
The Pac-2
Every story is unique, and we can’t say we know a lot about what will happen to Oregon State and Washington State based on what happened to Montana in the 1950s or a post-death penalty SMU in the 1990s. But averages might still tell us something.
Average 10 years before second demotion: 4.7 wins, 37.2% SP+ percentile rating
Average 10 years after second demotion: 4.8 wins, 28.7% SP+ percentile rating
Basically, the left-behind programs tend to fall in quality a bit while maintaining familiar win totals (thanks to lesser strengths of schedule). Let’s see what that might mean for Washington State and Oregon State moving forward.
Last 10 years before demotion: 6.6 average wins, 62.1% average SP+ percentile rating
Wazzu has been a higher-upside Temple in recent history, balancing both the capacity for painfully low lows (the Cougs went 5-32 from 2008 to 2010) and solid eight- to 10-win capabilities when things are going well. They have fallen off a hair since Mike Leach left in 2020, but with what amounts to a Mountain West schedule in 2024, they are projected to win around eight games on average based on initial 2024 SP+ projections.
Last 10 years before demotion: 4.6 average wins, 41.9% average SP+ percentile rating
Before beginning a surge under Jonathan Smith in 2021, Oregon State had endured a solid run of struggle, with seven straight losing seasons from 2014 to 2020. Winning 18 games in 2022-23 was great, and the recent success is propping up the Beavers’ SP+ projections despite the extreme personnel losses. They were 44th in the initial February projections, and they’ll probably be in the mid-50s, close to Wazzu, when the May updates are released. With the MWC schedule at hand, that should keep them in the realm of bowl eligibility.
When it comes to future power-conference membership, it’s hard to say anything particularly encouraging at the moment. But as the Beavers face a future in either the Mountain West or a remodeled Pac-12 that strongly resembles the MWC, they can at least take heart in the fact that we have no idea what the future holds in terms of conference alignment and that, even though it’s not really their fault they’re in this position to begin with, if they field successful football teams moving forward — more TCU, less UConn — they could improve their lot a few years down the line.
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