Nick Saban on CFP Expansion: "I don't see the logic in it"

Saban noted that an expansion of teams in the CFP would likely reduce the importance of bowl games, something that he has argued since its inception.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Since the dawn of the College Football Playoff era, there has been much discourse surrounding its format as well as the number of teams that should be included.

On Monday, the conversation continued as Alabama head coach Nick Saban once again let his thoughts be known on expanding the playoff field, which has been a topic of discussion since the CFP's board of managers announced that it had passed a proposal that would expand the playoff from four teams to 12.

"I don't know that expanding — if this is the best four teams and they played each other, I don't see the logic in it if we had more teams there would be better games," Saban told reporters on Monday morning. "I don't know how that adds up. But I am really not in a position to answer that. There's a lot of other good teams, whether it was their consistency in performance or whatever happened to them in championship games or whatever, that may have had the opportunity to get in the playoffs that didn't."

Of the 14 CFP semifinal games that have been played over the past seven seasons, the average margin of victory has been 21 points. Thus far, only four of those 14 games have been decided by less than 14 points.

When it comes to coaching in College Football Playoff games, no one is more experienced than Saban. Of the eight CFPs thus far, Saban's Crimson Tide has appeared in seven of them. While he might not be on the board of managers that ultimately makes the decision on whether or not to expand, there's no doubting that Saban's opinion on the issue does matter to some extent.

"Look, I'm not the one that needs to be deciding what the playoff needs to be," Saban said. "There's a lot of good people out there that can make a decision as to what's best for college football. But the more we expand the playoffs, the more we minimize bowl games, the importance of bowl games, which I said when we went to four. So I don't think that's changed. And I think it's also come to fruition."