Here's Nick Saban's Biggest Concern About College Football Playoff Expansion

After its annual spring meeting, a College Football Playoff Management Committee working group said that it “continues to support and believe in the four-team playoff as it is currently constituted" and so does Alabama head coach Nick Saban.

Saban said on The Paul Finebaum Show that expanding the playoffs would ultimately diminish the importance of other bowl games, the Spun reports. The article states Saban went as far as saying an expanded postseason field and lesser bowl games could not coexist.

“I think the playoff, as I said many years ago when we had just two teams in the playoff and expanded to four, that the more playoffs we have the less significant bowl games are going to be,” Saban said on The Paul Finebaum Show. “It’s really not for me, and I don’t even think I’m capable of judging how significant the positive self-gratification that players, programs, and coaches get from being able to go to a bowl game. Now, everything has shifted to the four teams in the playoffs, and the bowls seem to be pretty insignificant. I think if we expand the playoff, you’re going to see a continuation of that trend where the bowl games become less and less significant. Maybe these things can’t coexist. If they’re going to coexist, maybe we should try to leave them pretty much the same.”

The proposed expansion has the potential to greatly benefit teams who have undefeated records but still find themselves off the CFP radar, like non-Power Five programs.

The Spun reports that since the CFP format was introduced in 2014, Saban’s group has been selected six out of the seven years.

The working group tasked with reviewing the situation reviewed some 63 possibilities for change, including 6-, 8-, 10-, 12- and 16-team options and informed the management committee that it continues its work and anticipates making a report to the management committee about the future format at an upcoming meeting.