Jeff Long responds to Nick Saban, says some coaches unaware of 'real world'
Alabama head coach Nick Saban has said on multiple occasions that the attention cast on the inaugural College Football Playoff took away from the other bowl games.
Saban repeated the sentiment earlier this week when he said he feared going into the playoff that “all the attention, all the interest would be about the four teams in the playoffs” and “that by having a playoff we would minimize the interest in other bowl games, which I think is sort of what happened and I hate to see that for college football."
Saban’s Crimson Tide, of course, were one of the four teams to qualify for the Playoff. Jeff Long, the CFP selection committee chair, doesn’t think a coach like Saban – who is so accustomed to success at the highest level – can necessarily judge the interest in the lower-level bowls.
"Well, I think sometimes coaches, particularly those at the highest level, I'm not sure how aware they are of what's really going on out there in the real world," Long said on Sports Talk with Bo Mattingly, per Al.com. "You know, bowl games, they keep adding bowl games. And I think the television interest for the games is higher than ever before, so I think that's not only the College Football Playoff, but as we've gone through some of those bowl games. So I'm not sure it's having that effect."
Bowl attendance dipped some in 2014, but like Long said, television ratings for the bowl slate increased. On top of that, the semifinal arrangement involved with the Playoff did not seem terribly different from the way things were (in terms of attention) with the top BCS bowl games. The best games will receive the most attention, no matter how the champion is crowned.
Saban went so far as to say that it may come to a point where college football may have to choose one or the other – a playoff or bowl games. That seems a little drastic.
It’s only been one year, but there’s no reason to think that the bowl games and College Football Playoff cannot coexist, especially if the playoff sticks with a four-team format.
We’ve seen a number of bowls go up in recent months. As long as those games continue to make money, there's no reason to think they won't continue to be played.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
