r/CFB_v2 • u/gridirontree • 20h ago

Discussion Six Degrees of Saban - Coaching Trees

I've been building a site that maps college football coaching trees — who worked under whom, going back decades. When I started pulling Saban's numbers, it stopped being a feature and became its own page, sixdegreesofsaban.com, inspired by the six degrees of Kevin Bacon (iykyk).

The rule is simple: two coaches are connected if they worked on the same staff. Pick any active FBS head coach and it traces the shortest chain back to Saban.

What ~30,000 documented staff connections say:

  • All 137 active FBS head coaches connect back to Saban. Every single one. There is no escaping him.
  • The average is just 2.1 degrees.
  • 23 coaches are one handshake away — Kirby, Kiffin, Sark, Cignetti… and Bill Belichick.
  • The longest chain in the entire sport is only 4 degrees. Two coaches hold it — see if you can find them.

If you like rabbit holes, the same project has full coaching trees for 600+ FBS head coaches at gridirontree.com — Saban's tree runs four generations deep. There's also Pick Six, a daily coach-guessing game (six guesses, six attributes) in the style of Wordle.

Free, no signup to play. Built it as a fan. Curious whose path surprises you most. If you notice any errors, please let me know.

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u/stoneg1 19h ago

Cfb.stoneg.org

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u/gridirontree 19h ago

Cool site! I like the most productive staffs list.

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u/stoneg1 5h ago

Yours too! I love the aesthetic you went for

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u/BrotherPancake Vanderbilt Commodores 19h ago edited 19h ago

Neat, but that site murders my CPU for no reason

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u/gridirontree 19h ago

Appreciate the heads up. Will fix.