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.