Nick Saban calls for big change to College Football Playoff

Sep 11, 2021; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Former Alabama coach Nick Saban thinks College Football Playoff expansion is a good thing, but that one aspect of that expansion should be scrapped.

In an appearance on ESPN’s “College Football Live” Wednesday, Saban argued that conference champions should not receive automatic bids to the newly-expanded 12-team playoff. The legendary coach bemoaned that the format will not simply select the 12 best teams and pit them against each other.

“The downside of the [new format] is I just wish we could put the 12 best teams in the playoffs,” Saban said, via Mike Rodak of 247 Sports . “Not worry about conference champions and all that kind of stuff. If you do get beat in the conference championship game and you’re one of the best teams, you should still get in there because you played really quality opponents and you played good football.

“That’s my only concern about it. I just want to see the best 12 teams in it, and I think most people want to see the best 12 teams in it.”

Saban has some other worries about CFP expansion , but appears to have largely come around on it. Most would probably agree with him here. On the other hand, there’s a solid chance that the Power 4 conference champions will probably be among the best 12 teams in the country anyway. The fifth automatic bid, likely a Group of 5 team, might not be, but the idea of including a high-performing team from one of the non-power conferences is not exactly an affront to the field.

Ultimately, part of the point of expansion was to ensure that power conferences would always have a playoff representative. For the field to be expanded, an automatic bid system like what was ultimately implemented was probably a prerequisite.

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