Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban joined fellow College GameDay analyst Pat McAfee on “The Pat McAfee Show” Friday during a discussion that centered heavily on the 12-team playoff.
Without naming any names, Saban said he wasn’t sure the committee had chosen the right 12 teams for the playoff. That came after Penn State demolished SMU, 38-10, last Saturday and after Notre Dame led Indiana by three scores until garbage time a night earlier.
“I thought there were some good games, but I also thought there was some evidence that there might have been three or four better teams that they could have put in the playoffs,” Saban said.
‘Get out of the conference room’: Saban offers advice on how to improve CFP
The seven-time national championship winning coach said:
“You know, in the old days when the Sugar Bowl wanted to see if they were going to pick you, or the Orange Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl or whatever, they would come watch you play so at least they could eyeball the team and see what you looked like, especially at the line positions because those are critical matchups. And then they would decide how good the teams were based on that. You’ve got to get out of the conference room to be able to do that, but I think that would be helpful in the future. You know, less emphasis on how many wins and more emphasis on who you beat. That’s my first (takeaway).”
Saban stated that, based on seeding, he wasn’t sure the best four teams in the playoff would reach the semifinals in the Orange Bowl (Jan. 9) and Cotton Bowl (Jan. 10):
“I think we have less of a chance, based on the way they seeded the teams, of getting the best four teams in the final four than we did when we just picked four teams. Oregon and Ohio State are probably (two) of the best four teams in the country, and they’re going to play each other in the round of eight rather than in the semifinals. And that was all because we awarded conference champs byes. They should be rewarded by putting them in the tournament, but they should get ranked relative to the quality of team they have relative to everybody else. Then you would have more good games I think and a fair tournament when you get down the road to the semifinals and the finals.”
Georgia, Oregon on upset alert? Saban says bye weeks in CFP can lead to big downside
When the Oregon Ducks face the Ohio State Buckeyes on New Year’s Day in the Rose Bowl, and the Georgia Bulldogs play Notre Dame later that night in the Sugar Bowl, they’ll have gone almost a month between playing in the Big Ten and SEC Championship Games.
According to Saban, that’s a big disadvantage for the Bulldogs and Ducks, especially in regards to one key area of the game.
“When you don’t play football for a long time, the one thing that it effects is your ability to tackle, which really effects your ability to play defense. We saw no defense (Thursday) — none. I mean, whoever got the ball last (won), so it’s exciting for the fans. But if you’re a coach, it drives you crazy because how do you manage a game when you know you can’t stop the other team?
“I always felt like, how do you practice over this long period of time from two to four weeks off? And you don’t want to tackle guys in practice and get your own team hurt, so you don’t tackle that much. And then you get in a game and miss a lot of tackles and you don’t play the way you should play on defense. I think that’s probably something to watch with all these teams that had byes.”
Oregon and Ohio State are scheduled to kick off at 4 p.m. CT in Pasadena on Jan. 1. Georgia vs. Notre Dame will kick off later that night at 7:45 at the Superdome in New Orleans.
Both games will be televised on ESPN.
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