Nick Saban Sounds Off On 24-Team College Football Playoff: "It's Too Many"

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban is not a fan of the College Football Playoff potentially expanding from 12 to 24 teams next season.

During a recent appearance on the New Heights Podcast, Saban criticized the proposed expansion, arguing that the larger field is driven by money rather than competition.

Saban also expressed concerns about the potential elimination of conference championship games, particularly the SEC Championship, and the additional games players would be required to play.

The legendary coach believes a 16-team playoff would be a better option, saying there simply aren't 24 teams capable of winning a national championship.

Here's what Saban had to say:

quote:

---

“It’s too many. There’s not 24 teams in the country that can win a national championship,” Saban said. “So, what is the reason to actually do it? It’s about the money. What you’re giving up, which I hate to see, is the SEC Championship Game. Playing in the SEC Championship was a big thing for our players and our fans. It was a tradition, and it was a great venue. There’s only two teams who can play in a national championship, but more teams can play in [conference] championship games. There’s a lot of pride in winning the conference championship.”

“[The SEC Championship] was a great game, and players loved that. We’re gonna give that up to have an extra game where the 24th team is going to play the ninth-best team,” Saban continued. “If we just put the right 12 teams in and didn’t go through all the political BS [that] we went through so we can have a 12-team playoff, and end up putting a couple of teams in that shouldn’t be in, and some teams that didn’t get in should have gotten in, that was a good tournament.

“Maybe you go to 16 if you want to include some other people, but 24 is a lot. It’s too many games for college football players to play. We played 15 games three times, and I thought that was too many games.”

---