The experimental 12-team College Football Playoff has everyone talking different scenarios.
Fans of the sport are wondering how the CFP Committee go about getting the right 12 teams in to create matchups for the masses to enjoy.
People are concerned about if a 3-loss team can get in, if a team that loses its conference championship game can get in, and which conference gets the most teams in.
Alabama football is No. 7 in the latest edition of CFP rankings.
If it beats Oklahoma and Auburn, it’s heading to the Southeastern Conference title game A victory in the SEC Championship may get the Crimson Tide a first round bye for the playoff. Some feel that a loss for the Tide in the SEC title game would knock it out of playoff contention; however, a former Alabama head coach feels the CFP Committee is ‘suggestive’ in what it does.
Nick Saban won nine SEC Championships and six national championships — including three in the CFP era — during 17 seasons at Alabama.
Saban had the Tide in the playoff in eight of 10 years he coached Alabama. Alabama missed out on the dance in 2019 and 2022.
He was on the Pat McAfee Show this week as he’s still bothered by the Tide not making the playoff in 2022. Alabama suffered two losses to Tennessee and LSU that year, but TCU made the CFP over Alabama and got demolished by Georgia in the CFP National Championship Game.
“It was all subjective,” Saban said. “We would have been 13-point favorites over TCU if we would have played them, and they got into the playoffs and we didn’t. I’m not criticizing TCU — it wasn’t their fault — but that is the subjective part of it.”
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He also laughed when McAfee brought up the Georgia dominant win over TCU.
“I was at that game,” Saban said.
Saban knows the CFP Committee does its best to get the best teams into the playoff, but he also knows it is not perfect.
“No matter how many teams are in the College Football Playoff there’s always gonna be a debate about who didn’t get in..
They will get the best five or six teams in for sure”
Coach Saban #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/9FpstvCzzy
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) November 22, 2024
“It does not matter whether it is 12 teams, 16 teams, there is always going to be a debate about who did not get in,” he said. “I think the good news is about this, and I’ve said this many times before is that they will get the best five to six teams in for sure.”
He still remembers not making the playoff in 2022, but Saban feels the committee will have it right in this experiment.
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Stephen M. Smith is the senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
