Nick Saban says 24-team College Football Playoff is ‘about the money’

Nick Saban was asked about the College Football Playoff’s planned move to 24 teams on this week’s episode of New Heights, the podcast hosted by brothers Jason and Travis Kelce. The seven-time national champion coach, now an analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay, did not need long to answer.

“Too many. There’s not 24 teams in the country that can win the national championship. So, what is the reason to actually do it? He’s got it. Yeah, but what you’re giving up, which is what I hate to see, is, you know, the SEC Championship Game playing the SEC Championship Game was a big thing to our players. It was a big thing to our fans. It was a tradition, and it was a great venue. I mean, there is only two teams that can play in a national championship, but more teams can play in those kinds of championship games, and there’s a lot of pride in winning the conference championship. And we’re going to give that up to have an extra game where the 24th team is going to play the ninth-best team. I’m not a big proponent of it. I think it minimizes the importance of the season,” Saban said.

Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger first reported in October that the CFP had reached a deal with ESPN to double the field starting with the 2027 season, and ESPN reported days later that the sides had a handshake agreement, though the contract has not been formally signed.

Under the format Dellenger laid out, conference championship games go away, the top eight seeds get byes, and seeds 9 through 24 open with on-campus games in the second week of December. Only one spot is reserved, for the highest-ranked Group of Six champion, with the other 23 coming from the committee’s rankings.

ESPN is expected to pay about $350 million more for the expanded postseason, according to Dellenger’s reporting, and after the roughly $200 million in lost conference title game revenue comes off the top, about $150 million is left for the conferences to split. Big Ten and SEC schools would each net an estimated $2.5 million to $3 million a year.

“There’s not 24 teams in the country that can win the National Championship”

Nick Saban is OUT on the 24 team playoff, so quit askin’

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!!! https://t.co/aehwBp51Q7

— New Heights (@newheightshow) November 6, 2026

Does the data back Nick Saban’s 24-team argument?

The 12-team era has produced two national title games, and the lowest seed to reach one was 10th-seeded Miami last January. The champions were No. 8 seed Ohio State in the first year and No. 1 seed Indiana in the second. Nothing seeded below 10th has played for the title.

Last season’s final rankings show exactly who a 24-team field would have added. The 12 teams ranked inside the top 23 that missed the bracket were Notre Dame, BYU, Texas, Vanderbilt, Utah, USC, Arizona, Michigan, Virginia, Houston, Georgia Tech and Iowa. Eight of them had at least three losses, and Iowa had four.

That is the group Saban is describing when he says there are not 24 teams capable of winning it all.

Saban has said on The Pat McAfee Show that he would back a 16-team field as a compromise, a size the SEC pushed for before Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti’s 24-team model won out.

The last 12-team bracket ended with Indiana finishing 16-0. The first 24-team bracket is scheduled for next December.

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