Nick Saban believes 12-team College Football Playoff lowers chances of getting best teams in national championship

The College Football Playoff will have four teams remaining after next week’s action. However, former Alabama coach Nick Saban doesn’t believe that the four best teams in the country will be left.

Saban appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday and revealed an issue he has with the current CFP format. According to Saban, giving four conference champions the top 4 seeds is a mistake.

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“If you look ahead to what’s happening now, which is the next round of the playoffs, 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 4, than we did when we just picked four teams,” Nick Saban said.

No. 3 seed Boise State and No. 4 seed Arizona State have the longest odds to win the national title of any of the remaining teams. Meanwhile, Ohio State and Oregon have the second-best and third-best odds to win it all.

However, either Oregon or Ohio State will be eliminated after the game on New Year’s Day as the Buckeyes are the No. 8 seed and Oregon is the No. 1 seed.

“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,” Saban said. “And that was all because we awarded conference champs byes.”

Saban added that conference champions should make the College Football Playoff. He just doesn’t believe they should receive a bye to the quarterfinals.

“They should be rewarded by being put in the tournament, but they should be ranked relative to the quality of team they have relative to everybody else,” Saban said. “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.”

Nick Saban calls for College Football Playoff committee to ‘get out of the conference room’

Nick Saban also spoke on The Pat McAfee Show about another issue he has with the current College Football Playoff. Saban believes that committee members need to go out and attend games instead of watching them on TV.

“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 Rose Bowl, or the Fiesta Bowl or whatever, they would come watch you play,” Nick Saban said. “So at least they could eyeball the team and see what kind of team… especially in the line positions, because those are critical matchups.

“And then they would decide how good the teams were based on that. But you know, you’ve gotta get out of the conference room to be able to do that.”