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I agree with some caveats. by tdiddy07

Saban did finish 9-2 at MSU in year 5, which was a tougher league at that time than when Dantonio went 11-2 in year 4. Perhaps Saban was on his way to break through with sustained success, but we won't know.

Nevertheless, Saban's road to get there was harder. When he went 9-2, in addition to his 7th ranked squad, the Big Ten had Nos. 4 Wisconsin, 5 Michigan, 11 Penn State, 18 Minnesota, 24 Illinois, 25 Purdue. And this happened to be a year OSU was unranked. (Of course, a good OSU could've knocked out a couple of those teams out of the rankings.) Plus, Notre Dame. Prior to that year, the conference generally had 5 ranked teams per year, which he generally played. Plus Notre Dame. He was surrounded by programs performing and recruiting at an elite level. That was a big factor in him taking over a team that just went 3-8.

Dantonio began to excel while the conference was down. And splitting into two divisions further diluted the schedule. He generally faced 1-3 ranked teams in conference per year. Plus Notre Dame. However, his 2015 team beat 3 ranked conference teams plus Oregon. (They missed NW and WI in the other division.) He had it easier than Saban. However, his good teams performed very well against elite teams despite not having elite talent. Accordingly, I think he would've succeeded anywhere, including ND.