Now that he’s no longer coaching the team, Nick Saban is apparently done lobbying on Alabama’s behalf.
The retired head coach said Wednesday on The Pat McAfee Show he doesn’t believe a team with three losses has a strong case to make the College Football Playoff. That includes the Crimson Tide along with Ole Miss this year.
Saban’s perspective would probably be much different if he were still at Alabama. The Crimson Tide beat Georgia, shut out Missouri 34-0, and hammered LSU by 29 points. Surely that’s enough to warrant a CFP berth, right?
His comments from Wednesday hit on one argument behind expanding the playoff to 12 teams.
Under a four-team format, the barrier to entry was so high that multiple teams with credible résumés were bound to miss out in a given year. Florida State even had a perfect record last season but got overlooked by the selection committee.
Now, the teams on the bubble are going to have a minimum of two, possibly three losses. Once you get this far down the rankings, the sense of injustice isn’t as acute.
All Alabama had to do was beat Vanderbilt or a mediocre Oklahoma squad and it wouldn’t be in this position.
The same goes for Ole Miss. If the Rebels wanted to be taken seriously as a championship contender, then they shouldn’t have come up short against LSU, Florida and Kentucky.
Further playoff expansion is probably inevitable so get ready for the arguments about whether four losses should be disqualifying
