Morning Distribution for Wednesday, January 5, 2022

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Morning Distribution]( Wednesday, January 5, 2022 Your daily briefing from FiveThirtyEight --------------------------------------------------------------- The Morning Story [Georgia Tech v Notre Dame]( [College Football’s Coaching Carousel Has Been Dizzier Than Usual]( By [Jake Lourim]( On Jan. 4, 2007, when Nick Saban gave his [introductory press conference]( as Alabama’s head football coach, he professed — as coaches often do — his desire to make his new job his last one. “My next stop, you know where Lake Burton is?” he asked. “It’s in north Georgia, right on the North Carolina border, Rabun County. … That’s where I go in the summertime. That’s where I like it, and that’s my next stop.” Fifteen years have passed, and almost every college football program is seeking the kind of stability that Saban has delivered to Alabama, which [will play Georgia on Monday]( for the school’s seventh national championship in [Saban’s 15 seasons](. Since mid-September, the sport has experienced arguably its most seismic coaching turnover in recent memory. According to a tally from The Athletic, 28 Football Bowl Subdivision schools [have made moves so far this season]( — up from 18, 24, 27 and 21 in the previous four years. Along the way, [annual salaries]( neared the eight-figure mark, [coaches moved on]( from [storied programs]( and a record number of schools made changes in the middle of the season. From their first press conference until just before they leave for another job, coaches like to project stability. Schools demand it, locking up [multi-year extensions]( to give the impression that those coaches will stick around. Players want it, too, seeing as coaching changes tend to set off [recruiting defections]( and [transfers](. But in reality, the industry is lacking any sort of consistency. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: Why Jan. 6 Was Not A Turning Point]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.