If Saban had done it with Texas, we'd be totally cool with it, except we're Texas, and someone would have a "Fire Nick Saban" thread up this morning after the loss last night.
As far as the schedule, the SEC arranges the schedule to maximize post season chances for the teams. They play one less conference game, few significant OOC opponents, have a cupcake game late, and one other thing. They space out the big games between name programs. They avoid having Bama play Georgia, LSU, and another hot team in consecutive weeks. You play three top fifteen schools in a row, you're going to lose one. Teams can't be up every week. However, if you schedule LSU, have an FBS school in between, and then play Georgia, you've got a better chance at going undefeated.
The reason they do this is because it works. They're not stupid enough to change to nine conference games and scheduling tough OOC games because the B1G and B12 complain about it. They'll keep doing it as long as it works.