When the College Football Playoff (CFP) committee unveiled its 12-team playoff lineup earlier this month, Nick Saban voiced his approval on ESPN, saying, “I do think the best teams are in the playoff, which I think is most important.”
But after the first round of games—dominated by Penn State, Notre Dame, Texas, and Ohio State—Saban seems to have reconsidered.
Speaking Friday on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Saban said, “There were some good games, but it also became clear there might have been three or four better teams that should have been in the playoffs.”
Teams like Alabama (9-3), Miami (10-2), Ole Miss (9-3), and South Carolina (9-3) narrowly missed the cut this year.
Saban shared a potential solution to improve the selection process, suggesting the committee observe teams in person as bowl representatives once did.
“Back in the day, the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and other major bowls would send people to watch teams live,” Saban said. “They could assess the physicality of the teams, especially in key matchups like the lines. Doing this gave them a better understanding of how good the teams really were. It might be time for the committee to leave the conference room and adopt a similar approach.”
Currently, the CFP committee evaluates late-season games as a group, watching from a conference room in Grapevine, Texas. Saban emphasized the need to focus less on records and more on the quality of victories when selecting teams.
Saban also revisited his ongoing criticism of automatically granting top-four seeds and first-round byes to conference champions.
“Looking ahead to the next round of playoffs, it’s clear the way teams were seeded makes it less likely we’ll see the best four teams in the semifinals,” Saban said. “Take Oregon and Ohio State, for example. They’re two of the best teams in the country, but they’re facing off in the quarterfinals instead of later in the tournament. That’s because conference champions were given automatic byes.”
While Saban agreed that conference champions deserve playoff spots, he believes they should be ranked based on overall quality. “This would result in better matchups and a more competitive tournament, particularly as we reach the semifinals and finals,” he said.
Saban has long argued against automatic qualifiers. At SEC media days in July, he advocated for selecting the top 12 teams based on rankings, regardless of conference affiliation.
