Clemson football: Nick Saban questions CFB Playoff format

It’s been a couple of years since Clemson football has seen Nick Saban in a CFB Playoff

There’s no question that the Clemson football program has been the second-most successful team in the CFB Playoff era, just behind the powerhouse that is Alabama.

Since the inception of the CFB Playoff in 2014, Alabama has made six appearances and the Crimson Tide have won three National Championships. In total, they’ve won eight games in the CFB Playoff.

In that same amount of time, the only program to come close to touching Alabama has been Clemson. The Tigers have made the same amount of CFB Playoff appearances as Alabama (6) and have two National Titles- one less than the Crimson Tide. Clemson has six playoff wins all-time.

Even though Nick Saban has continuously been successful in the new postseason format, he questioned the significance of bowl games with how the playoff is now being lauded.

Saban said that bowl games used to matter and give players a sense of ‘self-gratification’, but he felt as if the inception of the CFB Playoff has diminished their value (at least in perception).

"“So I just wonder sometimes if having a Playoff and bowl games — and that was the unique thing about bowl games in college football, a lot of players got self-gratification for having good seasons,” Saban said in an interview on the Rich Eisen Show. “They got to go to a bowl game, their families, the program, everything sort of got some positive self-gratification of what they were able to accomplish, even though they weren’t national championship caliber or Playoff caliber.”"

No one has been more successful in the CFB Playoff era than Saban and Alabama, followed by the Clemson football program

Saban questioned the current postseason format and said the next question that will have to be answered is if a playoff and bowl games can coexist.

"“Now that’s all been diminished a little bit. You just wonder to yourself, ‘Can Playoff and bowl games co-exist, or should we just have more teams in the Playoff?’ I’m not saying I’m for it or against it. I think that’s the question people need to answer.”"

It’s an intriguing point that the Alabama head coach is bringing up.

Can bowl games coexist with a playoff or should the playoff be expanded? While Saban isn’t making an argument one way or another, it does seem that he is more open to the idea of expanding the playoff with these new comments than he was in years past. Perhaps his team getting left out of the semifinals completely back in 2019 changed his tune a little bit.

The idea of expansion isn’t new and is going to continue to be discussed. Some will make the argument that four teams is just right. Others will make the argument that every conference should have a path to the playoff and that a committee shouldn’t have as much say over the majority of teams who are selected.

No matter where you stand on the issue, it still speaks volumes when a coach of Saban’s caliber speaks on the issue and that’s certainly cause for Clemson football fans to pay attention, considering their top competition nationally year-in and year-out continues to be Alabama.