Nick Saban Wants College Football Playoff To Change Its Rules
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Nick Saban wants the College Football Playoff to change its rules.
The College Football Playoff values one thing more than everything else: wins. If you win 11 or 12 games, you’re getting into the College Football Playoff. But the legendary Alabama Crimson Tide head coach thinks that things should be different.
Nick Saban wants the College Football Playoff to value one thing more than everything else: The schedule.
The Hall of Fame head coach believes that teams should get more credit for losing a big game, than they should winning against a bad team.
The ESPN “College GameDay” analyst made it clear that he thinks games like Saturday night’s Texas vs. Ohio State game should be prioritized. Teams that play in big games should get beneficial treatment from the College Football Playoff selection committee.
The ESPN college football analyst made his thoughts clear on Saturday morning.
“Players love to play in big games,” Saban said. “That’s what great competitors love to do. Fans love to see big games.”
“I think what we’ve created now is a system of how many games you win helps you get into playoffs, and the playoffs become the barometer for the success of your program,” he continued. “We need a better metric to actually evaluate quality wins and quality losses. Some losses are better than some wins.”
Ultimately, the College Football Playoff is already valuing big games and strength of schedule. But, clearly, Saban thinks they should take things a step further.
However, this can be a bit subjective, too.
How do you decide what’s a “good loss” right now? Is it based on preseason rankings? Is it based on a computer model? Is it based on the eye test.
At the end of the day, one thing is easiest to count against everything else: Wins and losses.
This story was originally published by The Spun on Sep 13, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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