Nick Saban record in College Football Playoff games at Alabama

When you think of the College Football Playoff, you should think of Nick Saban. In the first 10 renditions of it, his Alabama Crimson Tide have been a part of it in all but two variations of it. This is the final year of the four-team format, but Alabama has made it in either as the SEC Champion or as an at-large team eight times. In their first seven trips to the playoff, they have won at least one game.

Since coming back to college football in 2007 after a brief two-year run leading the NFL's Miami Dolphins, Saban has been an Alabama institution. The Crimson Tide were in the midst of a decade-plus run of futility between Gene Stallings' retirement and Saban's second coronation in the late 2000s. Of course, Alabama was already dynastic before the advent of the College Football Playoff.

Three of his six national championship victories at Alabama came in the old BCS. His first came over Mack Brown's Texas Longhorns in 2009. Two years later, Alabama beat SEC West division rival LSU in a regular season rematch to win it all in 2011. The following year, Alabama bested a very talented Georgia team in Atlanta, only to clobber national independent Notre Dame to make it title No. 3.

Heading into this year's College Football Playoff, let's take a look at Saban's all-time record in it.

Nick Saban's all-time record in the College Football Playoff at Alabama.

After a heartbreaking OT loss in the 2024 Rose Bowl vs. Michigan, Saban is 9-5 in College Football Playoff games to date.

• 2014: Sugar Bowl: L (Ohio State, 42-35)
• 2015: Cotton Bowl: W (Michigan State, 38-0)
• 2015: National Championship Game: W (Clemson, 45-40)
• 2016: Peach Bowl: W (Washington, 24-7)
• 2016: National Championship Game: L (Clemson, 35-31)
• 2017: Sugar Bowl: W (Clemson, 24-6)
• 2017: National Championship Game: W (Georgia, 26-23)
• 2018: Orange Bowl: W (Oklahoma, 45-34)
• 2018: National Championship Game: L (Clemson, 44-16)
• 2020: Rose Bowl: W (Notre Dame, 31-14)
• 2020: National Championship Game: W (Ohio State, 52-24)
• 2021: Cotton Bowl: W (Cincinnati, 27-6)
• 2021: National Championship Game: L (Georgia, 33-18)
• 2023: Rose Bowl: L (Michigan, 27-20 (OT))

In the seven times Alabama has made the playoff prior to this season, the Crimson Tide had won six national semifinals in a row. In fact, they won six in a row dating back to the 2015 Cotton Bowl victory over hapless Michigan State. Prior to Michigan's win in the Rose Bowl, Alabama's only loss in the national semifinals came in the 2014 Sugar Bowl to the eventual national champion Ohio State Buckeyes. Let that sink in, y'all.

While Saban is still an incredibly strong 6-2 in seven national semifinals, he is only .500 in national title bouts in this format. At 3-3 in national championship games, Saban has seen his Crimson Tide beat Clemson in 2015, Georgia in 2017 and Ohio State in 2020. Conversely, he has also seen his Crimson Tide lose to Clemson in 2016, Clemson again in 2018 and to Georgia in 2021. These things happen.

Upon looking at Saban's coaching track record in the playoff, two things really stand out to me that I did not realize until doing a little bit more digging. The first is how truly dominant the Crimson Tide have been in national semifinals. This is good news for Alabama, and bad news for the Michigan Wolverines... The second is it is truly a flip of the coin when it comes to the national championship.

You need to go out and win, but Saban is pretty much lock to win a semifinal, but 50/50 in a title bout.