The College Football Playoff selection committee unveiled the inaugural 12-team field on Sunday, prompting Nick Saban to suggest the committee reform its seeding process. The college football legend and former Alabama coach claimed fifth-seeded Texas has an “easier” path to the national championship game than top-seeded Oregon despite the Ducks landing a first-round bye. The Longhorns face No. 16 Clemson in the first round and would face No. 11 Arizona State in the quarterfinals with a win. Oregon faces the winner of No. 6 Ohio State and No. 7 Tennessee.
“I’m hopeful we learn from this first time around,” Saban said during ESPN’s Selection Show. “There’s a lot of learning opportunities for us. Look at the paths for who gets a first-round bye. In every other tournament, the top four teams end up getting the four best paths to the championship. That’s not true with this field. The fifth-seed (Texas) has the best path to get to the national championship. That doesn’t mean they’re going to get there, but they have the lowest-ranked path to get to where they want to go. Oregon is going to have to play Ohio State or Tennessee, which are the eighth and ninth seeds in this bracket but are some of the better teams in college football. We can learn from that.”
Oregon coach Dan Lanning said he has no qualms with the Ducks’ path to the national championship. His program is 13-0 for the first time in school history and is coming off arguably its best offensive showing of the season in a 45-37 win over Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game…