Since the start of the new century, the college football postseason has been a hotly contested topic.
With the BCS system being the decider for over a decade, pundits and pundits were critical of the sport only having a computer-based system deciding who should be competing for the national championship game along with only two teams being considered for the top prize.
This ultimately led to what exists today that is the College Football Playoff. But just like the BCS, the new playoff has stirred up its own fixture of controversy and has sparked new conversation around what the future of the postseason should be.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who voiced his thoughts a bit during the team’s postseason run this past year, went into more depth during an appearance on the “All Things Covered” podcast on Thursday.
The seven-time national champion discussed how the playoff diminishes the importance of the other bowl games, which creates less of an incentive for players to want to play.
“I’ve always been one that bowl games and playoffs are going to have a tough time coexisting together,” Saban said via CBS. “Bowl games have always been a positive thing for college football players because a lot of people get a lot of self-gratification for having a good season. Maybe you didn’t win a championship or whatever, but you get a chance to go to a good bowl game and have some fun. It’s a really good, positive reinforcement for college football players.
“When we had a two-team playoff, if we made a four-team playoff, that’s going to take away from the bowl games and all the people are going to talk about is the playoff. My issue is not with expanding the playoff, it’s the more you expand the playoff, the less important bowl games become. Nobody talks about bowl games now. All they talk about is who’s in the playoffs and who are the four teams. That’s it.”
Since the playoff was created more and more teams who do not make the final four have seen less enthusiasm from the players and fans surrounding their bowl games. It’s certainly a discussion that needs to happen in order for the sport to continue to succeed and it will take someone like Saban to help drive the discussion towards a solution.
“You don’t even hear about the other games and all that stuff,” he said. “That’s always been my issue with the playoff is that bowl games sort of get put on the back shelf. If we want to expand the playoffs, that’s OK. I don’t think you can have bowl games and do that as well. I’ve always been one that, if we are going to have playoffs, why don’t we make the bowl games a part of that.”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
