Nick Saban opposes 24-team College Football Playoff expansion, says money is 'the bottom line'

The former Alabama coach is okay with postseason changes, but wants something different

Oct 16, 2026 at 2:28 pm ET • 1 min read

The College Football Playoff is in the process of expanding to 24 teams starting in the 2027 season, much to the chagrin of Nick Saban, who says doubling the number of teams in the current bracket is far too many.

"I would be for 16 (teams) – I think that would be a good compromise," Saban said Friday on ESPN. "I would be for keeping conference championship games as maybe a play-in for the 16? Which, now, you have 20 teams that have hope. But I don't think there's much support for that. I don't think anybody really likes that."

The new format is expected to feature a "19+4+1" model with 19 at-large bids, four reserved for Power Four champions and one for the highest-rated Group of Six champ. Theoretically, that would mean almost every team in the final top 25 rankings would play in the playoff.

That also means the likely end of conference championship games. For the SEC, an expanded bracket to 24 teams would need to offset the league's financial losses from losing its title game, which is estimated around $100 million.

"The bottom line is money. That's the bottom line," Saban said "You explained it. Universities need it because of the way we're spending more now for players. There's still a cost to having Olympic sports, which are important, I think to be able to keep and give people opportunities to compete. And how do we do that?"

CBS Sports' Brandon Marcello reported this week the CFP could offer an additional $320 million on top of the current contract.

Previously, decision-makers in the Big Ten and the SEC were at a stalemate over future CFP formats. The Big Ten prefers a 24-team field with multiple automatic qualifiers per conference, while the SEC preferred a 16-team "5+11" format. 

That has since changed according to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who said this week at the league's basketball media days a decision on expansion was coming "sooner rather than later" in the coming weeks.

"Attitudes change over time and perspectives change, and so we'll see where that leads us from a final decision standpoint," Sankey said, via The Athletic. "I think in general, we have achieved some of the progress we've expected on scheduling commitments. We'll see if we can finalize those across the nation."