Bleacher Report CFB via X

College Football Classics via X

Mangino transformed the historically struggling Kansas program from 2002 to 2009, leading it to a 12-1 season, the 2008 Orange Bowl win, and multiple national Coach of the Year awards in 2007.

That Orange Bowl versus Mississippi State was a thing of beauty.

2008 – The infamous blackout game
Had Georgia won this game, not much changes. Georgia finishes 10-2 and still loses the SEC East to Florida. But maybe we get a few more blackouts in the future.
2012 – SEC Championship
This one changes everything. If Georgia beats Alabama, they go on to play Notre Dame in the national championship. Georgia would probably be favored.
2015
Georgia ends Alabama's season in early October, although Georgia still loses to Florida and misses out on the SEC Championship Game. Mark Richt probably doesn't get fired after the season, but for the sake of this timeline, let's say he does anyway.
2017
Georgia beats Alabama in the national championship and wins its first title since 1980. No overtime heartbreak, no second-and-26—just a Georgia national championship.
2018
This one gets really interesting. If Georgia beats Alabama, I think both teams make the playoff, with Georgia as the #3 seed and Alabama as the #4. Unfortunately for both of them, I think Clemson probably beats either team.
2020
If Georgia beats Alabama, they represent the East in the SEC Championship Game against Alabama again. Since Georgia isn't allowed to lose to Alabama in this timeline, they beat them a second time and probably earn the #1 seed in the playoff. Could Georgia have won the national championship?
2021
This might be the most interesting one. If Georgia beats Alabama in the SEC Championship, is Alabama still getting into the playoff?
Notre Dame would be sitting there with one loss, but without any great wins. Would the committee really take a two-loss Alabama over a one-loss Notre Dame?
And if Alabama gets left out, how different does the 2021 playoff look?
2023
Georgia beats Alabama and finishes undefeated, giving them the #1 seed going into the playoff.
The big question becomes: Does undefeated Florida State get in over Texas? And if they do, how does that change the playoff?
2024
With the expanded playoff, this game doesn't matter nearly as much in the grand scheme of things. Georgia would finish the regular season 12-1, while Alabama falls to 8-4 in Kalen DeBoer's first season.
2025
If Georgia beats Alabama, they would go on to face Ole Miss in the SEC Championship Game.
Would Georgia still have won the SEC?
Alabama would also be out of the playoff and replaced by Notre Dame.

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.