Nick Saban and Tim Tebow came out against the proposed jump from 12 teams to 24 teams in the College Football Playoff on Saturday morning, arguing the bigger field would reward too many programs and strip value from the regular season. Saban said there are not 24 teams in the country that deserve to be in the playoff, while Tebow said the change would let teams get in and get hot at the right time instead of proving themselves all season.
The criticism landed as college football fans were already focused on a full day of heavyweight games, with Ohio State and Indiana in Bloomington and Notre Dame against BYU later on the schedule. That timing gave the debate immediate relevance, because the playoff discussion was no longer an abstract future plan; it was being weighed in real time against the sport’s most visible weekend.
Saban, speaking on ’s College GameDay on the campus of BYU, argued that the sport would give something up if it keeps expanding. He said bowl games are gonna be a thing of the past and added, “We’re gaining something but we’re also giving something up. There’s gonna be no SEC Championship Game now.” In his view, the math of a 24-team bracket changes the meaning of the season before the postseason even begins.
Tebow made a similar case on the SEC Network, saying the expansion changes the goal posts. He said the sport used to be about how consistent a team could be throughout the season, and that the new setup shifts the focus to whether a team can get in and catch fire at the right time. He also said it takes away consistency, because under the current structure teams have to show up every single week.
That is the friction inside the proposal. A larger College Football Playoff is supposed to create more access, but both men argued it would dilute what makes college football different: the pressure of every Saturday and the payoff of bowls and conference championship games. Saban and Tebow did not just reject the number. They rejected the tradeoff behind it.
What happens next is the part still hanging over the sport. The 24-team idea is being discussed as a real possibility, but the shape of that format — who gets in, how teams are seeded and what happens to conference championship games — is still the question that will decide whether the change broadens the sport or blunts it.
