Nick Saban doesn’t think the College Football Playoff is fair

Nick Saban has not been shy about voicing his displeasure with the status quo in college football and doesn’t think the College Football Playoff format is entirely fair.

The College Football Playoff has injected a lot of enthusiasm and excitement among college football fans who grew tired of the old BCS format to determine the two teams to play for the national championship. While many advocates of the playoff system have enjoyed what it’s meant for the game, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the four-team format isn’t so sure it’s all that fair.

Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban won a national title under the BCS format while the coach at LSU and at Alabama and has since won through the playoff format. Needless to say, he’s well-versed in the postseason college football provides. But just because he’s been a beneficiary of the format doesn’t mean he thinks it’s a perfect system.

No, Saban isn’t calling for an expanded playoff format like some, but he does think there’s something flawed due to the subjectivity of it all. Speaking at Saturday’s media day in advance of Monday’s National Championship Game, Saban offered his thoughts about a flawed system that he doesn’t think is fair.

“I don’t think any system where you have to make a subjective about who gets in and who doesn’t could be totally fair. Because it’s subjective and because I think there’s all these factors that get taken into consideration. Whether it’s strength of schedule, conferences, whatever conference championships. You know a lot more about this than I do. So… I can’t really answer that. To say that it’s fair, if we had a system where it was fool-proof in terms of what you had to do to qualify then I think that you could say that it’s fair.”

Let’s dissect this all, because Saban makes a lot of good points that shouldn’t be dismissed as Saban complaining.

He is right because this is subjective and based entirely on what the ever-changing playoff committee deems as the four best teams. How do you define best? That’s ultimately what Saban is getting at because there is no set criteria. Do you have to win your conference? Are you propped up for playing a tough schedule in a tough conference? How bad will you be penalized then for losses if you’re scheduling tough out of conference games? Are Group of Five teams like an undefeated UCF even considered for a spot?

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We really don’t know and as hard as Rece Davis tries to get to the heart of the decisions made by the playoff committee when the rankings are revealed on ESPN, we still don’t know what’s the most important to them. We believed it was conference champions, but for the second straight year a team that didn’t win their conference made the field. It was Ohio State last year and it’s Saban’s Alabama team this year.

Saban may think it’s not fair, and yet, how do you think UCF players, coaches and fans feel right about now after going undefeated? How do you think Penn State felt last year when they won the Big Ten and saw a team they beat (Ohio State) make the field instead?