Nick Saban has made his stance clear.
Speaking on ESPN's "College GameDay," the former Alabama head coach and seven-time national champion voiced his displeasure with this week's announcement that a 24-team College Football Playoff format was being "finalized."
"People want to see the best teams in the playoffs," Saban said. "There's not 24 teams in the country that deserve to be in the playoffs. There were 12 teams last year. There were a couple teams that got in that probably shouldn't have. So, you know, I don't think there's 24 teams in the country that can win the championship."
Saban gave numerous reasons why he was against expansion, covering everything from the above take to the fact that teams should have played more balanced schedules regardless of the playoffs' size. He also spoke about the effect that a longer season could have on players.
"The thing that concerns me the most about this is how many games are too many games for college players to play," Saban said. "We (Alabama) played 15 games maybe three times, and I thought that was too many. Now you're going to be able to play at least 17, which may be too many."
The current format could see a team play a maximum of 17 games, if it went from the opening round all the way to the national championship game. Not included in that 17? Conference championship games, which will become a thing of the past under the new format.
"There's going to be no SEC championship game now, and you know, to me, that that was one of the greatest venues, you know, in the southeast that fans look forward to and players had great passion for," Saban said. "Bowl games are going to be a thing of the past, so we're going to gain something, but we're also going to give something up as well."
While most of the GameDay staff tried to highlight some of the potential positives of the new model, Saban was the most negative by a significant margin. His strongest argument may have been the one he knows the most about: the effect expansion will have on coaches.
"We've now lowered the bar to get in the playoffs at 24 teams, and we're going to raise the expectations of the fans to get in the game," Saban said. "Where lots of coaches think this is going to give me job security if I get into the playoffs, it's also going to create an expectation that if you don't get in the playoffs, we're going to fire your a--."
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