On Friday’s The Pat McAfee Show, ESPN college football analyst Nick Saban previewed Saturday’s big showdown between SEC rivals Tennessee and Georgia, but the topic led him down a path to a wild College Football Playoff scenario.
That prompted him to suggest some changes in how the CFP Selection Committee chooses the 12-team field.
If Georgia defeats the Volunteers on Saturday, both teams will be 8-2. Barring an upset in their final two games, both teams would be on track to finish with two losses. Several other SEC teams could also finish with two losses.
“On the big picture side of it, I just don’t think people are taking enough account into, what is your strength of schedule?” Saban said. “Who did you play? Who did you beat, who did you lose to? This is the fifth Top 20 team that Georgia has played. Texas played one, and they got beat by them.
“I think it’s not just, ‘I’m undefeated, or I lost one game,’ it’s, ‘Who did you lose to, who did you play, who did you beat?’ I like the way they do it in basketball, they’ve got this RPI rating … and you beat so many good teams, that means something. Well, we need to do that in football and not just look at the record.”
McAfee then pointed out there’s a perception that the CFP Selection Committee is placing too much emphasis on wins, to the dismay of many. Saban pointed out how that could create a crazy situation with SEC teams.
“I think we’ll gradually move in the right direction, I don’t know if it’s going to happen this year,” Saban said. “But the other big question is, how are they going to factor in these championship games? Like there is a potential of eight teams that could be a two-loss team in the SEC, for example. Now it will probably end up being six or something, but only two of them are going to play in the SEC Championship Game.
“So that means that three or four other teams could have sat home with two losses and not played, and then you get beat and you get eliminated in the SEC Championship Game and somebody else comes in and plays [in the CFP] and they didn’t do anything.
McAfee laughed and clapped at the absurdity of that possible scenario.
“There is so much s***, there is so much s*** that could possibly happen,” McAfee said.
Saban said that at least the new 12-team field guarantees the top half-dozen or so best teams in the country will get in.
“I think they’ll get the best five or six teams in, but it’s going to be hell to pay now for the other six teams to get in there, and who doesn’t get in,” Saban said.
