Nick Saban wants big change to College Football Playoff

With the College Football Playoff expanding from four to 12 teams this year, Nick Saban believes the selection committee has it wrong.

Nick Saban would like to see a change in how the College Football Playoff selection committee makes its picks. / Mickey Welsh, Montgomery Advertiser via

Nick Saban has been a prominent voice for the expansion of the College Football Playoff, but the former seven-time national champion head coach does not approve entirely of the format that will debut this season.

"The downside of the [new playoff] is I just wish we could put the 12 best teams in the playoffs," Saban said at SEC Media Days.

"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."

In expanding from four to 12 teams starting this postseason, the CFP selection committee will present its top 25 rankings and then assign seeds for the playoff games.

The top-four ranked conference champions will get the No. 1-4 seeds and first-round byes, while the fifth-highest league champ, likely the Group of Five selection, will be included after that. Saban believes the format should be made simpler.

Originally a critic of the four-team College Football Playoff, Saban thought a semifinal would decrease the importance of the other bowl games, but since then he has accepted that has already happened, and changed his stance, believing a larger playoff would make the postseason more important.

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