Nick Saban addresses how CFP committee approaches strength of schedule, suggests RPI model

Since the latest College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday, the discussions around strength of schedule and it’s value in college football have picked up.

And much of the conversation was fueled by some SEC teams with losses against top competition being ranked behind teams with better records, but perhaps worse overall resumes. It’s a situation that has legendary former coach-turned-analyst Nick Saban suggesting that the CFP take on a college basketball-esque ratings system, similar to the RPI or NET ratings.

“On the big picture side of it, I just don’t think that people are taking enough account into what is your strength of schedule? Who did you play? Who did you beat? Who did you lose to?” Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday. “This is the fifth Top 20 team that Georgia has played. Texas played one and they got beat by ’em. Which was Georgia. And we could go through every team but I think it’s not just ‘I’m undefeated’ or ‘I lost one game,’ it’s ‘Who did you lose to? Who did you play? Who did you beat?’ I like the way they do it in basketball. They’ve got this RPI rating or whatever they call it and you beat so many good teams, that means something. Well we need to do that in football and not just look at the record.”

To Saban’s point, the one-loss Longhorns, which lost to Georgia in Austin, are ranked No. 3 and sitting at 8-1 and 7-2 Georgia, with losses at Alabama and at Ole Miss, is No. 12.

Even outside of the SEC, teams like Miami and Notre Dame, which both lost to unranked opponents, are ranked ahead of Georgia with one-loss records. Evidently, Saban isn’t sure that should be the case as the records don’t tell the full story of what teams are truly better than each other.

He also wonders how conference title games will effect the process, and if there are benefits to not playing in one and risking an additional loss.

“I think we’ll gradually move in the right direction,” Saban said “I don’t know if it’s going to happen this year but the other big question is, is how are they going to factor in these championship games? Like there’s a potential of eight teams that could be a two-loss team in the SEC, for example. Now there will probably end up being six or something but only two of them are going to play in the SEC championship game. So that means that three or four other teams could’ve sat home with two losses and not played and then you get beat and you get eliminated in the SEC championship game and somebody else comes in and plays and they didn’t do anything. So I mean a lot of these things have to be factored into.”

And while these issues about how the committee factors in the strength of a teams schedule when putting a win-loss record in context do still matter and are real, Saban acknowledged one benefit of the 12-team playoff: The very best in the sport, which is usually more than four teams, will get in.

There might still be quibbling about the back half of the bracket, but on the whole, there will be fewer teams truly capable of winning a national title left out of the field, if any.

“But here’s the one good thing: I don’t think you’re going to have a situation that we had in the past where you had a fifth team that didn’t get in,” Saban said. “Like two years ago, we didn’t get in as a fifth team. TCU got in instead of us. Last year, Florida State didn’t get in as a fifth team, they were undefeated. So I don’t think you’re going to have that. I think they’ll get the best five or six teams in. But it’s going to be hell to pay for the other six teams that get in there and who doesn’t get in.”