If I came away with anything meaningful from SEC Media Days this week, then it’s this. I just wish that Nick Saban could take more vacations.

Lord knows Miss Terry has earned it.

Saban visited Italy over the summer. It was a gift from friends to Saban’s wife for her 50th wedding anniversary. The Saban family had a great time, but I was struck by something that Saban said about the trip. Alabama’s coach said he didn’t want to go.

I felt that one in the gut.

At 71 years old, Saban is the oldest coach in the history of SEC football. Take that next vacation without a moment’s hesitation, coach. You’ve earned it and then some, and everyone in college football should be picking up the tab. I nominate Georgia coach Kirby Smart, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Texas Minister of Culture Matthew McConaughey to pay for most of it.

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For years, Saban felt like the center of the universe at SEC Media Days. Not this time. That’s just the truth of it. The league is changing. On Wednesday, Alabama’s coach stepped to the microphone here in Nashville as a GOAT who is no longer the king.

Used to be that Saban wore this league’s crown and coaches kissed his rings. Used to be that Alabama’s presence in a room created more buzz than this league could handle. Smart carries the SEC’s royal scepter these days, and all anyone wants to talk about are a couple teams that aren’t even in the conference. The brand that is Alabama football, Saban says based on his worldly travels, has never been more recognizable. This team heading into fall camp? When’s the last time the Crimson Tide was this anonymous?

Alabama doesn’t have a proven quarterback and I still don’t know what happened to that defense against Tennessee. There are a few questions with this Alabama team and there are a couple doubters, too. Call it hunch, but something tells me Saban has enough talent to keep things competitive.

History tells me that Alabama will still be sending more opposing coaches on sudden vacations over the next few years before Saban even thinks about taking another one.

I’m not afraid to admit it. At this point, I’m just here to appreciate Saban’s Alabama for as long as we’re lucky to have it.

College football is a fast-paced world, so I don’t think people take the time to appreciate the big picture of why the sport is changing so drastically. It’s transforming into a professional sport as a natural reaction to Saban’s influence upon the game. The SEC is absorbing Texas and Oklahoma because Texas couldn’t hire Saban and the Longhorns were sick of losing recruits to a conference that Saban built into King Kong. The College Football Playoff is expanding because Saban turned it into the Alabama Invitational.

Do critics understand the depths of Saban’s legacy? Do observers appreciate the ways in which Saban’s impact with Alabama has remade college football?

Apparently not, or at least not to the degree for which Alabama’s coach actually deserves credit.

Smart, Saban’s longtime assistant at Alabama, was asked about his time at Alabama this week and Georgia’s coach said he couldn’t remember. Paul Finebaum of the SEC Network recently said that Saban’s legacy would take a hit if Alabama didn’t make the College Football Playoff this season.

What a joke.

Saban built this world that is now designed to topple his kingdom, and there is no greater legacy in the history of college football. A legacy isn’t about the number of wins alone, and for Saban the wins really matter little and less with every passing season. Saban is at 280 career victories as a college coach. There isn’t a person associated with football who thinks Saban needs to reach 300 to complete his legacy.

What’s another College Football Playoff appearance to Saban’s legacy? Truly, it would mean nothing. Even another national championship would be just another number on his bio.

By layers, there is no more profound legacy in the history of college football than the mark Saban is leaving on the current evolution of college football. The expanded College Football Playoff, Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC, players getting paid, Congress working to find a uniform standard for this sport’s new economy — part of Saban’s legacy is that his greatness caused all of these things to happen. Just a part, though, because none of that covers the players he has put in the NFL or the number of college graduates he has coached or the charitable works of his family or the wide reach of his coaching tree.

It would be foolish to sleep on Alabama this season, but the Crimson Tide sure feels sleepy with Saban approaching his 16th season in Tuscaloosa. Know why? Because that’s the way he wants it.

In college football, there is everything before Saban at Alabama, and there is everything after his arrival. Saban is the flood myth. Saban is the Ford Motor Company. Saban is “Jaws.” No one is counting that shark’s teeth to measure how it changed motion pictures forever or rewired everyone’s brains at the beach.

Swim into those waters at your own risk, but just know that the shadow moving through the depths of the ocean absolutely loathes the idea of you even trying to enjoy a vacation. Maybe Saban isn’t winning a national championship this season, but I’m also not about to question the bite radius of nature’s ultimate killing machine.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, hope and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.