As discussions continue about the future of the College Football Playoff, expansion to 24 teams is being considered. would be on the horizon. The CFP said Thursday that discussions were underway with ESPN to double the number of teams from 12 to 24.
Nick Saban has major “concern” about moving to 24 teams, citing the increased schedule. But he also stressed the importance of money in the discussions and also proposed a sort of “compromise” for the new CFP.
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Saban floated the idea of a 16-team field, which would preserve conference championships as de facto matchups. Conference title games expected to disappear under 24-team CFP, On3 Pete Nakos, Brett McMurphy And Chris Low reported.
By expanding to 16 teams and keeping the conference championships intact, Saban argued that 20 teams would be in play for the national title, instead of 24. However, he said he didn’t see much support for that model with a 24-team bracket gaining momentum.
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“I would be for 16 — I think that would be a good compromise,” Saban said Friday. The Pat McAfee Show. “I would be in favor of the conference championship games being maybe a play-in for the 16? And now you have 20 teams that have hopes. But I don’t think there’s a lot of support for that. I don’t think anyone really likes that.”
Money, however, is the key to the debate. As Ross Dellenger detailed for On3 last week, the minimum amount needed for PSC expansion is at least $300 million. In the era of NIL and revenue sharing, Saban said rising roster costs are likely a driving factor in promoting 24 teams.
“The main thing is money,” Saban said. “That’s the bottom line. You laid it out. Universities need it because of the way we now spend more on players. There’s always a cost to having Olympic sports, which I think are important, to be able to retain and give people opportunities to compete. And how do we do that?”
Nick Saban: College sports need ‘some kind of budget’
Particularly in college football, roster expenses have increased as NIL and rev-share become even larger parts of the landscape. Schools can share up to $21.3 million directly with athletes under the terms of the House regulations, and that figure is expected to increase each year under the 10-year agreement.
But with spending potentially reaching $50 million in college football, Nick Saban stressed the need for some sort of “budget” for programs. He said the goal would be to create more consistency and help make college sports more sustainable.
“I think we also need to look at some sort of budget that we can have so that everyone competes at the same level and everyone can plan, how much are we going to spend here?” Saban sad.
“And I want players to make money and I want them to have name opportunities, image opportunities, likeness opportunities. But I think we need to put some kind of budget into it so people can operate. Every business has a budget. I don’t know how a business survives if you don’t have a budget. So why wouldn’t we need that in college athletics?”
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