We've officially reached the point where Alabama HC Nick Saban is the old guy who just complains about everything. 

Though in this instance, Saban might have a point. 

According to Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger, Saban isn't happy about the SEC's new schedule proposals. 

With Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC in 2024, the conference is expected to move to a 3-6 scheduling format. Each SEC team would have three permanent opponents that they play each season. The other six games would rotate between the remaining 12 SEC teams. Each team would host each SEC team at least once every four years with this new format. 

When this topic comes up, the first thing that folks usually want to discuss is who the permanent opponents will be. 

The Tennessee Vols' proposed three opponents are Alabama, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt. In that scenario, Tennessee would play Florida and Georgia twice every four years. 

For Alabama, the proposed opponents are Auburn, LSU, and Tennessee. 

And Saban isn't on board with that. 

“I’ve always been an advocate for playing more [conference] games,” said Saban to Sports Illustrated. “But if you play more games, I think you have to get the three fixed [opponents] right. They’re giving us Tennessee, Auburn, and LSU. I don’t know how they come to that [decision].”

Saban's issue seems to be specifically with Tennessee. 

“They said they did a 10-year whatever,” said Saban. “Well, some of those years, Tennessee wasn’t as good as they’ve been in the previous 10 years, but now they are as good as they used to be before those 10 years."

Here are the rest of Saban's comments to Sports Illustrated on scheduling:

“We got three teams and two of them are in the top 10 and the other is in the top 10 a lot,” Saban adds. “Look historically over a 25-year history, and the three best teams in the East are Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. You look historically at 25 years, Alabama, LSU and Auburn are the three best teams in the West. So we’re playing them all.”

Saban has a point here. Playing those three teams every year — two of which beat the Crimson Tide last season — would certainly be one of the toughest three permanent opponent setups in the SEC. 

But I doubt anyone will be feeling bad for Alabama. They've had plenty of success over the last 15 years. If their road gets a little tougher, I doubt they'll be receiving much sympathy from the rest of the SEC.

And by the way, two years ago, there's no way Saban would be complaining about this setup — at least not when it comes to Tennessee. 

But now that the Vols are a top-10 team again, Saban suddenly has some issues with playing Tennessee. 

It was just a little over a year ago that Saban said the rivalry against Tennessee meant a lot to him personally. 

"I think the rivalry between Tennessee and Alabama is one of the old great rivalries in college football,” said Saban before playing the Vols in 2021. “It goes way back. I know it means a lot to a lot of people in our state. It certainly means a lot to me."

I have a feeling Saban only liked the rivalry because he was beating the Vols every year. Now that Tennessee is a threat to Saban, he's ready to be done with playing the Vols every year. 

Unfortunately for Saban, the rivalry against Tennessee likely isn't going anywhere. And neither is the rivalry against Auburn. The SEC is going to make sure to protect those historical matchups. 

Now, maybe the Crimson Tide can get out of the LSU game. But that will require moving the schedule around for other teams. 

I'm sure Saban will complain loud enough that something will happen. But I'd be shocked if it involves Alabama not playing Auburn and Tennessee each year.