Nick Saban seems to side with Curt Cignetti after CFP committee drops Indiana on bye

Nick Saban was asked about the College Football Playoff rankings on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday, three days after the selection committee moved the Indiana Hoosiers from No. 4 to No. 9 during a week they did not play. Saban, who won seven national titles as a head coach and now works as an ESPN analyst, joins McAfee most Fridays during the season, and this week he gave a blunt answer.

“I think, to be honest with you, I think at this point the rankings are a little bit bullsh*t if you want to know the truth about it. … Indiana didn’t even play and they dropped five spots,” Saban said.

“To be honest with you at this point the College Football Playoff rankings are bullshit

Indiana didn’t even play and they dropped five spots” ~ Coach Saban #PMSLive https://t.co/cJcC8exSNc

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) November 13, 2026

Curt Cignetti had made the same complaint a day earlier in his own way. “Bad losses don’t count anymore? Are first downs still 10 yards?” Cignetti wrote on X on Thursday, with laughing and clown emojis attached.

Bad losses don’t count anymore?

Are first downs still 10 yards?

— Curt Cignetti (@CCignettiIU) November 12, 2026

After the first rankings release, Cignetti accused the committee and ESPN of favoring the SEC, and Saban pushed back on McAfee’s show the following Friday when the conversation turned to the Big Ten. “I mean, okay, what’s better than the SEC? You guys want to kind of call the Big Ten the NFL?” Saban said.

Was Indiana’s drop only about the bye week?

The committee still has three weeks of games and a conference championship weekend left before the final release, and a team can lose five spots in one Tuesday without taking a snap.

He has also been one of Indiana’s steadier believers on McAfee’s set. Two weeks ago, before the Hoosiers hosted the Minnesota Golden Gophers, he predicted a breakout. “I think Indiana is going to start showing their true colors here and really start dominating people,” Saban said.

Indiana won that game 23-16 in overtime, its second straight overtime finish, and then sat out the weekend in which Alabama, UCLA, Notre Dame, Texas and Tennessee all moved past it. Committee chair Hunter Yurachek pointed to a Saturday with seven games between ranked teams. “Indiana was probably the victim of having a bye week at the wrong time,” Yurachek said Tuesday. He also singled out the Hoosiers’ offense. “They have won games because of their defense, not because of their offense,” Yurachek said.

The drop moved the defending national champions out of the top four, the spots that come with a first-round bye. Indiana, 8-1 with its only loss to Ohio State, hosts the No. 18 USC Trojans on Saturday. None of Indiana’s eight wins has come against a ranked team, so Saturday is its first chance to add one before the committee releases its next rankings Tuesday, Nov. 17.

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