Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer doesn't care about number of CFP teams
Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer has heard all the arguments for how big the College Football Playoff should be.
"Twelve, 16 and 24 seem to be the most popular, right?" DeBoer told reporters at SEC spring meetings.
But a number is not what DeBoer is focused on as he heads into his third season with the Crimson Tide.
"For me, it’s really not about numbers," DeBoer said. "It’s about just trying to win every football game so we don’t have to put it in a committee’s hands. That’s our goal as a program at Alabama."
In 2024, after road losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma, Alabama was the first team on the outside looking in. The Crimson Tide had three more losses in 2025, one of which came in the SEC championship game, but Alabama was awarded a No. 9 ranking in the final CFP rankings.
DeBoer made no mistake. He wants the CFP committee to make sure that the best teams are in the playoff. But the story he says is not in the number. It's how they will be ranked, especially in a new era of nine regular-season SEC games.
"I don’t think there’s a way to understand it," DeBoer said. "There’s not some secret formula. We know that there’s going to be less games out of conference, which is going to make it harder to understand the strength of schedule that we all have, whether it’s the SEC or other conferences."
Alabama will open the 2026 season vs East Carolina Saturday, Sept. 5. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m.
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter or Instagram @colingaytnews.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer talks College Football Playoff expansion
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