Nick Saban Urges Strength of Schedule for 12-Team CFP Selection
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Sep 13
Nick Saban Urges Strength of Schedule for 12-Team CFP Selection
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 13
Summary
Nick Saban said College Football Playoff selectors should weigh strength of schedule more heavily, arguing “quality wins and quality losses” matter more than raw win totals.
Week 2 upsets and marquee results — including Texas’ comeback over Ohio State and Michigan’s win over No. 11 Oklahoma — underscored his case for rewarding teams that schedule and survive tougher opponents.
Saban said the current 12-team era creates incentives to avoid big nonconference games because playoff bids have become the main measure of program success.
The debate remains messy: schedule strength and human rankings are subjective, while efficiency models can still rate a losing team highly — Ohio State stayed No. 2 in SP+ even after losing to Texas.