Nick Saban Questions James Madison Making 2025 CFP Bracket Over Notre Dame

Nearly two weeks after the College Football Playoff field was set, the arguments over who made it and who was left out are still raging.

On Thursday's episode of The Pat McAfee Show, Nick Saban criticized the decision to have James Madison among the 12 teams vying for a national title instead of Notre Dame by comparing the Dukes to a minor league baseball team playing in the World Series.

Most of the discussion around the Fighting Irish's exclusion was centered around the selection committee dropping them behind Miami in the final rankings after having them ahead in each of the first five rankings released during the season.

Neither team played during conference championship weekend and Miami had a head-to-head win over Notre Dame this season, so why it took so long to recognize it is in the rankings was certainly odd.

However, there has been backlash to the committee including two Group of Five teams in James Madison and Tulane in the field. The official CFP rules do require one Group of Five team to be included, but since the ACC champion was a five-loss Duke team the door was opened for another to get in.

That turned out to be the case, with James Madison being a higher-ranked conference champion than Duke. Since Notre Dame football doesn't have a conference affiliation, it is always subject to being an at-large selection.

The Irish also would have been included in the field if the 2026 rules were in place because a memorandum of understanding signed with the CFP guaranteed them a spot if they were ranked in the top 12. They were 11th in the final standings.

Per ESPN's Heather Dinich, the College Football Playoff and ESPN extended the deadline until Jan. 23 to determine any potential changes to the playoff format for 2026 and beyond.

There have been different proposals put forth, including a 16-team format with the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large bids.

That still doesn't solve the complaint Saban has because it's entirely plausible under that scenario a team like James Madison is ranked ahead of a Power Four conference champion if a situation like the ACC had this year happened, but at least Notre Dame would have made it in.

Surely, that would have caused the debates to stop because there are famously never any arguments about who does and doesn't make the 68-team field in the men's college basketball tournament.

James Madison will play Oregon at Autzen Stadium in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET.