Nebraska's Matt Rhule: Big Ten 'the NFL of College Football' and Deserves 4 CFP Spots

As the College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams, Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule said he believes the Big Ten deserves four spots going forward.

Per ESPN's Heather Dinich, Rhule cited the recent additions of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington as well as the overall difficulty of playing in the conference to back up his argument.

"In the Big Ten we have to go to someone else's stadium in our league five times and duke it out," Rhule said. "But I think we'll have a lot of access to the College Football Playoff. I think four teams from this league should get in every year because this is the best league. This is the NFL of college football in my mind."

Rhule's comments are likely to raise some eyebrows in the SEC, which has long been considered the most competitive conference in college football and also faces a changing landscape with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma. Still, he believes the Big Ten presents a tougher road than any other conference.

"That's not to diminish any other league," he added. "The SEC is amazing. These other leagues are great, but the challenge in the Big Ten is going to be really difficult."

Following the expansion to 18 teams, the Big Ten will play a nine-game conference schedule with no divisions. Nebraska will host UCLA and travel to USC in back-to-back weeks in November, something Rhule joked that he would've "thrown a fit" over in the past if those schools were added to the nonconference schedule.

"I'm not playing those guys!" he said with a laugh. "Well, here they are."

The College Football Playoff has five spots reserved for the highest-ranked conference champions and the other seven spots will go to the next highest-ranked teams.

Nebraska went 5-7 in its first year under Rhule, its seventh straight season with a record below .500. However, Rhule said he's confident in his team's chances to turn things around this year and contend for a spot in the CFP.

"I think you can tell when a team is ready to make the turn from their body language and the way that they walk around the building," he said. "When I walk through our locker rooms and I walk through our weight rooms and when I walk out on our field, I see a team that understands that games are going to come down to the final seconds, and the narrative about close losses, you turn that into close wins."