Nick Saban "Not Apologizing" for Alabama's Frequent CFP Appearances
Nick Saban and his Alabama football team find themselves in a familiar position. The Crimson Tide made the College Football Playoffs for the seventh time in its eighth year of existence.
There are two new faces in the CFP landscape this year, one of which is Alabama's first round opponent. Michigan (No. 2) and Cincinnati (No. 4) are both making their first appearances in the playoff.
On Sunday afternoon, Saban was asked during the initial Cotton Bowl coaches press conference if he thought it was good for the sport that there are some new teams getting a shot at the CFP.
"I'm not apologizing for trying to have a program like a lot of people have tried to have a program that can get in the playoffs as many times as possible," Saban said. "I'm sure that's the goal of a lot of folks. So even though I think that it might be healthy for the sport because it's healthy for fans, as competitors, as coaches, we're all trying to get our team in the playoff. Because that's sort of the standard of college football right now."
In the eight-year history of the CFP, only 13 different teams have made the final four. Alabama leads the way with seven appearances, followed by Clemson with six, and Ohio State and Oklahoma with four each.
As the chatter continues to grow around college football about expanding the playoff even more, the Alabama coach said he tried to warn before the initial expansion what kind of damage it would do to the sport.
"I think the whole atmosphere of college football changed as I brought up when we started this whole playoff we would minimize the importance of bowl games, which we have succeeded at," Saban said. "And now everybody just talks about the playoffs and who's in the playoffs. It used to be in college football if you had a great season and got to go to a good bowl game, everybody was excited. Players wanted to play. Fans were excited. And that doesn’t happen anymore.”
Cincinnati is the first Group of Five school to make the playoff, and Saban expressed multiple times that he feels they are deserving of the playoff spot. As someone who played at Kent State, which is a mid-major school, he also said that he thinks it's good for college football that everyone from every conference feels like they can have the opportunity to reach the playoffs.
Bearcats head coach Luke Fickell doesn't want his team to be representative of every non-Power Five school. He just wants them to be respected for the work they've put in to get to this position.
"We don’t want to think we’re carrying some flag for the non-big schools so to speak," Fickell said. "We we just want to be us, and our guys have done an unbelievable job all year of handling all the different distractions and different things that we've gone through.”
Overall, Saban believes the parity in the sport and the CFP this year is best for the fans.
"I think it's good that we have a balance in college football in terms of people who can be successful," he said. "I think it's good for the fans that they all have hope that their team has an opportunity to get in the College Football Playoff.”
