Alabama coach Nick Saban has long argued for more conference games on each SEC team’s schedule but he couldn’t get enough other conference teams to agree to a change.

But what Saban couldn’t persuade, COVID-19 has forced.

“I’ve always been an advocate of playing more games so that every player gets to play every team in the (SEC) East,” Saban said. “And this is certainly going to create that opportunity to a large degree for a lot of our players.”

In a normal season, an SEC team would play the other six teams in its division, East or West, along with one fixed team from the other division it plays every year and another team from the other division that rotates.

Saban said the players benefit from greater competition with an SEC schedule.

“I certainly think that playing 10 conference games makes it very challenging for the players, makes it very challenging for our team,” he said. “It’s very, very challenging, but I think it’s a great opportunity for players to be able to compete.”

Nick Saban talks preparations for Alabama Crimson Tide’s season opener from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.