The possibility of expanding the College Football Playoff continues to gain momentum. While a 24-team format would give more programs an opportunity to compete for a national championship, it could also create additional challenges for players and coaches.

The CFP is reportedly nearing the final stages of negotiations with ESPN over a media rights agreement that could expand the postseason field from 12 to 24 teams. The CFP announced the latest development on Friday, its first public update since AP and ESPN reported in October that the sides had reached a handshake agreement.

Meanwhile, former Alabama head coach Nick Saban has raised concerns about the impact such a format could have on college football’s traditions.

Nick Saban Makes His Stance Clear on College Football Playoff Expansion

During an appearance on the “New Heights” podcast, host Travis Kelce asked Saban whether he supported increasing the playoff field to 24 teams.

Saban made his position clear, expressing strong opposition to the proposed expansion.

“There’s not 24 teams in the country that can win the National Championship,” Saban said. “So, what is the reason to actually do it?”

Jason Kelce, who co-hosts the podcast alongside his brother Travis, said that “money” was driving the decision, and his take seems to have some merit. An anonymous person familiar with the ESPN-CFP agreement told The Athletic that ESPN would pay an additional $345 million annually for the expanded playoff games.

However, Saban’s reservations extend beyond simply increasing the number of participating teams. He is also concerned that a 24-team playoff could eliminate conference championship games, which he views as an important part of college football tradition.

“It was a big thing to our players, it was a big thing to our fans, it was a tradition, and it was a great venue,” Saban said. “There’s only two teams that can play in a National Championship, but more teams can play in those kinds of championship games and there’s a lot of pride in winning the conference championship.”

Saban also questioned the competitiveness of certain potential first-round games under the proposed format. He raised concerns about a scenario in which the No. 9-ranked team would have to face the No. 24 seed, questioning whether such games would add meaningful competition to the postseason.

Saban is indeed against expanding the playoff to 24 teams, but he did not dismiss the possibility of making adjustments to the existing format.

“If we had just put the right 12 teams in and didn’t go through all the political BS that we went through so we could have a 12-team playoff and end up putting a couple teams that shouldn’t be in, and then some other teams that should have been in didn’t get in,” Saban added.

“That was a good tournament, and maybe you go to 16 if you want to include some other people, but 24 is a lot. It’s too many games for college football players to play.”

The 12-team College Football Playoff format will remain in place for the 2026-27 season. Under the proposed agreement, the expanded 24-team tournament would begin with the 2027 season and continue through the remaining five years of the current CFP-ESPN media rights agreement.

The proposed 24-team format would reportedly include automatic bids for the four Power Four conference champions, one for the highest-ranked Group of Six team, and 19 at-large selections.