Throughout his storied teaching profession, Nick Saban hardly ever shied away from a chance to specific his ideas a few subject associated to varsity soccer.
Throughout his newest look on the “Pat McAfee Present,” the seven-time nationwide championship profitable coach mentioned a few of the potential drawbacks of the brand new 12-team Faculty Soccer Playoff format.
Beneath the expanded playoff, the 5 highest-ranked convention champions will obtain an computerized postseason bid. The 4 highest-ranked convention champions will likely be granted a bye for the primary spherical. Saban steered that the idea might end in some unintended penalties.
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Nick Saban sits on the ESPN Faculty Gameday set previous to the NCAA soccer sport between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Ohio State Buckeyes at Beaver Stadium in College Park, Pa. on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.
“By giving the convention champions, after they’re not the highest-ranked groups, the bye… what it actually impacts is the trail to the championship,” he argued.
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“And when you do not seed the groups based mostly on the standard of the overall season efficiency…” he continued. “The primary seed ought to have, technically, the best path to the championship and that does not actually occur once you permit convention champions to get seeded within the top-four after they’re not one of many top-four groups.”
Sep 7, 2024; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Nick Saban walks off the sphere after it was renamed in his honor at Bryant-Denny Stadium throughout halftime of Alabama’s win over South Florida 42-16. (Gary Cosby Jr.-USA TODAY Community by way of Imagn Photos)
Final week’s slate of faculty soccer video games featured a number of upsets. Alabama misplaced to Oklahoma, Florida upset Ole Miss, and Auburn knocked off Texas A&M. Alabama, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M will all enter the ultimate week of the common season with three losses.
Saban argued in opposition to three-loss groups being rewarded by making it to the playoff.
“I do assume as we boil all the way down to this, like proper now, arduous to reward a staff with three losses,” Saban stated. “Particularly the type of losses Ole Miss had and like Alabama’s needed to fairly .500 groups I need to name them. Fairly common groups. You’ve bought another groups that possibly they didn’t play the identical competitors, however they didn’t lose video games to common groups both.”
Alabama head coach Nick Saban speaks throughout NCAA school soccer Southeastern Convention Media Days Tuesday, July 19, 2022, in Atlanta. (AP Photograph/John Bazemore)
From Saban’s viewpoint, the Georgia Bulldogs are the one potential three-loss staff that must be in line for severe playoff consideration. Georgia enters their annual in-state rivalry showdown with Georgia Tech on Nov. 29 with two losses.
The Bulldogs are then scheduled to play the winner of this weekend’s Texas-Texas A&M sport within the SEC Championship sport in Atlanta. If Georgia drops that sport, Saban doesn’t consider they need to be eradicated from playoff competition.
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“If Georgia truly performs within the SEC Championship Sport, they actually shouldn’t be penalized if they need to occur to lose the sport,” Saban stated. “They’d find yourself with three losses. I don’t assume a staff that didn’t play within the championship sport that has two losses ought to get in, particularly in the event that they performed an excellent sport and it wasn’t a blowout.”
Oregon remained within the prime spot within the newest playoff rankings, with Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, and Notre Dame rounding out the top-5.
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