Former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban has never been afraid to share his opinion, even when he was still coaching, and that has continued during retirement.

Saban has always been for the greater good of college football and has never been afraid to criticize the changes in the sport over the last decade. A massive change coming is the 24-team College Football Playoff expansion next year, and despite the fact that it is almost universally unpopular with fans, it’s being rammed through by the mysterious powers in the sport.

In an epic rant, Saban went after the decision and said what everyone was thinking: that it’s about lining pockets.

NEW: Nick Saban sounds off on the 24-team College Football Playoff:

"It’s too many. There’s not 24 teams in the country that can win a National Championship. So, what is the reason to actually do it? It’s about the money."

He added: "If we just put the right 12 teams in and… pic.twitter.com/T17x4vTKpg

— On3 (@On3) November 6, 2026

“It’s too many…there’s not 24 teams in the country that can win a National Championship,” Saban said this week on the “New Heights” podcast. “So, what is the reason to actually do it? It’s about the 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 and our fans. It was a tradition and it was a great venue. There’s only two teams who can play in a National Championship, but more teams can play in [conference] championship games. There’s a lot of pride in winning the conference championship.”

“[The SEC Championship] was a great game, and players loved that,” he continued. “We’re gonna give that up to have an extra game where the 24th team is going to play the ninth best team. If we just put the right 12 teams in and didn’t go through all the political BS team 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 didn’t get in should have gotten in, that was a good tournament.”

“Maybe you go to 16 if you want to include some other people, but 24 is a lot,” he said. It’s too many games for college football players to play. We played 15 games three times, and I thought that was too many games.”

Saban would know better than anyone what is good for the players and for the game, and while many non-Alabama fans are not a fan of his, they certainly agree with him on this topic.