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Nick Saban speaks truth on CFP expansion: ‘There’s not 24 teams’ that can win a national title, but money wins

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Wallace, T. (2026, November 6). Nick Saban speaks truth on CFP expansion: ‘There’s not 24 teams’ that can win a national title, but money wins. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/nick-saban-speaks-truth-cfp-expansion-not-24-teams-win-national-title-money-wins

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Fox News · collected 2026-11-06 · by Trey Wallace

Quick Summary

Nick Saban, the head coach of Alabama's football team, criticizes the recent decision to expand the College Football Playoff (CFP) from 12 to 24 teams. He argues there aren’t enough quality teams in college football to justify such an expansion and suggests it’s motivated by financial gain rather than improving competition or tradition. Saban also expresses concern over losing conference championship games, like the SEC Championship Game, which he views as important traditions and valuable experiences for players.
Written by AI on 2026-11-06, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

As of November 6, 2026, Nick Saban, head coach of Alabama and one of college football's most influential figures, criticized the planned expansion of the College Football Playoff (CFP) from 12 to 24 teams. He argued that there are not enough qualified teams worthy of competing for a national championship at this scale. The primary reason behind the rapid expansion is financial, with ESPN and CFP finalizing new television rights agreements over the next few weeks. Fans largely oppose the sudden move, viewing it as unnecessary given only three years have passed since expanding from 4 to 12 teams. Saban emphasized that spending in college football has surged, with some programs investing up to $45 million annually on their rosters, further complicating the debate over fairness and meritocracy in playoff selection.

Written for “NCAA Expansion Critique” on 2026-11-07, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 NCAA Expansion Critique
Education · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 10% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Fox News
⚖️ Leans strongly left Hedges 5 of 64 claims Outlet record 67/100
“The articles discuss different aspects of college football playoff issues but describe distinct events and viewpoints.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
21
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
10%
2 of 21 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
67/100
Fox News's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Education
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-06 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Fox News · 6927 article(s) · 14 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 14 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Trey Wallace
44 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 " We could have just gone with sixteen teams, and not the drastic leap to 24 Losing out on conference title games, which is coming, was one of the caveats that committee members seemingly had to agree on in this impending move.
🔮 Miami's highly anticipated showdown against Notre Dame on Saturday night had another layer added to the storylines on Wednesday, as the health of Heisman Trophy contender Malachi Toney will now linger over the next month.
🔮 The only certainty entering Tuesday night’s rankings reveal was that Miami would sit atop the polls after a difficult outing against North Carolina. Now, with a showdown against No. 8 Notre Dame looming this weekend, this is shaping up to be an elimination game for the No. 11 ranked Fighting Irish. And let me make it clear for folks out there that are not following on a weekly basis: don't freak out yet, just give it a few weeks. But yes, you have my permission to start getting extremely nervous about the upcoming weekend, Notre Dame fans.
🔮 Florida State could no longer keep kicking the Mike Norvell can down the road following Saturday night’s loss to Clemson in front of thousands of empty seats.
🔮 You might ask whether one player is worth that much attention.
🔮 Auburn awoke a monster in Athens, and Florida felt the pain Then came the prognosticators who were riding a high after an upset win for Auburn between the hedges that drummed up conversations about whether this Georgia team had flaws that could come back to bite them again.
🔮 But fans of both teams were hoping that the opportunity to play this rivalry game in both Athens and Gainesville over these two years would have been on the table for the first time since the 1994 and 1995 seasons, which was also due to renovations in Jacksonville.
🔮 As OutKick has previously reported, and confirmed On3's Friday report, Wolfpack donors have been discussing the ways in which they could raise the money needed from an NIL perspective to have NC State more competitive in luring talent to Raleigh, with recent talks also focused on if Philip Rivers were to be hired as the next head coach.
🔮 So, you thought this would be an average coaching carousel compared to previous years?
🔮 Former St. John's basketball player RJ Luis has been fighting to play this season for Will Wade and the Tigers, but SEC rules prohibit him from taking the court for LSU due to him signing an NBA contract or having professional experience.
Also by Trey Wallace
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 44 articles by Trey Wallace →

Topics

CFP ESPN New Heights a National Championship the SEC Championship Game

Subjects

CFP ORG · 3× Nick Saban PERSON · 3× Saban PERSON · 3× Alabama ORG · 2× ESPN ORG · 1× Florida GPE · 1× Georgia GPE · 1× Kelce PERSON · 1× New Heights GPE · 1×

Narrative

While most of it has centered around the need to give more college football teams the opportunity at competing for a national championship, and providing conferences with justification for their spending to be competitive, a majority of fans have made it clear that making this type of leap is not worth the hassle that comes with it.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-06
🔮 " We could have just gone with sixteen teams, and not the drastic leap to 24 Losing out on conference title games, which is coming, was one of the caveats that committee members seemingly had to agree on in this impending move.

Claims (21 extracted, 2 hedged)

The impending expansion of the college football playoff has led to fans sounding off on the decision to move from 12 to 24 teams after only three years after adding eight teams to the current format. asserted
fans → lead → format
There have certainly been questions as to why it was so important from a timing standpoint to make the drastic move in adding 12 teams in such a short period of time, as ESPN and the CFP finalize their new television rights agreement over the next few weeks. asserted
ESPN → make → weeks
While most of it has centered around the need to give more college football teams the opportunity at competing for a national championship, and providing conferences with justification for their spending to be competitive, a majority of fans have made it clear that making this type of leap is not worth the hassle that comes with it. asserted
that → center → it
Nick Saban doesn’t hold back on CFP expansion move But, the most obvious argument comes down to the fact that there are not 24 teams in college football worthy enough of winning a national championship, especially in this era of the sport with teams spending upwards of $45 million to piece together a roster. asserted
teams → hold → roster
The real reason is somewhere in the middle between justifying that amount of money spent on contending for a title and what each school is doing to compete on a yearly basis with no guaranteed return on investment. asserted
school → justify → investment
There’s not 24 teams in the country that can win a National Championship," Nick Saban told the Kelce brothers on the New Heights podcast. asserted
Saban → ’ → podcast
"So, what is the reason to actually do it? asserted
reason → do → it
It’s about the money. asserted
It → ’ → money
What you’re giving up, which I hate to see, the SEC Championship Game, playing in the SEC Championship was a big thing for our players, it was a big thing to our fans. asserted
it → give → fans
"I mean, there’s only two teams who can play in a National Championship, but more teams can play in those kind of championship games. asserted
teams → mean → games
" We could have just gone with sixteen teams, and not the drastic leap to 24 Losing out on conference title games, which is coming, was one of the caveats that committee members seemingly had to agree on in this impending move. uncertain
members → go → move
Now, even if some years they are meaningless when it comes to CFP rankings, the tradition that comes with the first weekend of December is lost with expanding once again. asserted
that → come → December
Saban made a point that playing teams like Florida or Georgia while both ranked within the Top-5 of the country at the time added to the intrigue. asserted
both → make → intrigue
But, it was the former Alabama coach that made one of the strongest points of the entire argument, and it centers around how many games college football players will now be asked to play on a yearly basis if they are lucky enough to make a playoff run. asserted
they → make → run
"We’re gonna give that up to have an extra game where the 24th team is going to play the ninth best team," Nick Saban continued. asserted
Saban → go → team
"If we just put the right 12 teams in and didn’t go through all the political BS that we went through so we can have a 12-team Playoff, and end up putting a couple of teams in that shouldn’t be in, and some teams that should’ve been in that didn’t get in should have gotten in, that was a good tournament. asserted
that → put → teams
"Maybe you go to sixteen if you want to include some other people. asserted
you → go → people
It's too many games for college football players to play. asserted
players → play → ?
We played 15 games three times, and I thought that was too many games for college players to play. asserted
players → play → games
Saban has a solid point, especially when those teams who compete in a conference title game then will not play another game for nearly a month. asserted
who → have → month
We might not agree with the former Alabama coach on a lot of things, but Saban speaking truth into the downside of expansion is something a lot of fans will rightfully get behind. uncertain
lot → agree → fans
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