Nick Saban Sounds Off As Alabama Lands In CFP Firestorm

Nick Saban calls out the College Football Playoff rankings as premature and inconsistent, sparking a heated discussion on their validity and implications for the season.

Nick Saban didn’t mince words Friday when he weighed in on the latest College Football Playoff rankings.

During his weekly spot on “The Pat McAfee Show,” the ESPN “College GameDay” analyst and former Alabama coach blasted the current order, saying there’s too much football left for the rankings to carry much weight right now.

“I think, to be honest with you, I think at this point, that rankings are a little bulls--t,” Saban said.

He pointed to the Big Ten as the clearest example of why he feels that way.

“UCLA being No. 4 doesn’t mean anything if they can’t win out and beat USC,” Saban explained. “USC being 20th doesn’t mean anything if they beat Indiana and go beat UCLA.”

Saban also noted that Indiana slid five spots without even playing. CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek told ESPN that Indiana was “a victim of having a bye week at the wrong time” as teams around the Hoosiers picked up quality wins and jumped them.

Three teams Indiana had beaten - Northwestern, Michigan, and Minnesota - also lost last weekend.

The rankings also gave Alabama a major bump. The Crimson Tide moved from No. 7 to No. 3 and are now the highest-ranked two-loss team. They sit ahead of undefeated UCLA and one-loss Notre Dame.

Alabama’s two defeats came against now-No. 1 Georgia and No.

8 Tennessee. The committee cited the Crimson Tide’s strength of schedule, though the fact that Alabama is four spots ahead of Tennessee despite the head-to-head loss is already giving critics plenty to point to.

In Other News...

Alabamas Seton Hall Win Left One Real Question About This Roster

Alabamas 82-76 win over Seton Hall offered a useful early look at what this roster can be when it starts to click. Amari Allen led the way with 24 points and five assists, and Nate Oats got a chance to keep testing different rotation combinations while the Tide showed better effort on the defensive end than it has at other points.

Seton Hall made things interesting by clawing back from a 17-point deficit, which is the kind of response that can expose where a team still has work to do even in a win. Alabama handled the closing stretch well enough to finish the job, but the bigger takeaway from a non-conference game like this is whether the improved defense and lineup tinkering can hold up once the schedule gets tougher. [Read more 🡒]

Keelon Russell Opened Up About Playing Through Alabamas Biggest Vanderbilt Concern

Alabamas 21-6 win at Vanderbilt came with a little more uncertainty than the final score suggested, and Keelon Russell was right at the center of it. The quarterback entered the week dealing with an injury that left his status in question, then still managed to get on the field and guide the Crimson Tide to a road victory with 217 yards and three touchdowns.

Russell said he pushed himself throughout the week to be ready, which helps explain why Alabama was able to keep its offense steady despite the concern around his availability. For a team that needed him to answer the bell, the bigger question now is how he comes out of that game and what it means for the next stretch of the schedule. [Read more 🡒]

Alabama Faces A Late-Season CFP Test It Cannot Afford To Blow

November has a way of turning every ranked matchup into a referendum, and Alabama is right in the middle of that churn as the College Football Playoff picture tightens. With several contenders around the country dealing with injuries, travel issues and the lingering effects of recent results, the margin for error is shrinking fast, and the Tide know they cannot afford a stumble if they want to stay in the thick of the race.

Week 11 brings the kind of pressure-packed setting that can reshape the bracket in a hurry, especially with teams like Notre Dame, Texas, UCLA, Kentucky and Boise State all trying to protect their own positioning. For Alabama, the challenge is less about style points now and more about surviving a late-season test that could determine whether its playoff case stays strong or starts to unravel. [Read more 🡒]