Nick Saban Explains Challenges of Potential National Championship CoVID-19 Postponement

Saban cited player safety and logistical concerns as reasons why delaying the game could be tough. Here's his full statement.

Since it was first reported by AL.com on Tuesday that the Buckeyes continued CoVID-19 challenges could potentially push the national championship game back one week, there really hasn't been any reason to think that would actually happen.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith and College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock both said the game is still on as-scheduled and the Buckeyes intend to play on Monday.

But since the virus isn't going away, neither have the questions around the contingency plans. Nick Saban addressed the media on a Zoom call Thursday ahead of the CFP National Title game and explained what the challenges are of playing the game one week later. He cited the logistical concerns around the draft declaration day as well as the health and safety of players weighing into that conversation.

“Well, look, I think everybody respects the disruptions that we’ve had to endure throughout the season,” Saban said. “We have total respect for the safety of players. If there were -- and I think there were some issues relative to COVID, and there were discussions as to whether it was fair to continue or to move the game back and all that.

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“I think there would have been some probably, I don’t know, difficult management issues if we would have moved the game back. Our school is starting this next week. We would have had 35,000 students coming back here. We’ve played 12 games this year, so we have a lot of guys that have ground through the season, a lot of guys that are nicked up a little bit.

"Another week of practice would've been much more difficult for those guys, probably. January 18 is the date people have to decide whether they're going to go out for the draft or not. So just the whole timing of the whole thing would have been a tough management. But I would have put player safety on either team as the most important factor in this decision.”

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