Jumbo Package: College Football Playoff staying at four teams through 2026

Happy Friday, everyone. Softball opens up the weekend with the Easton Bama Bash starting at 1:30pm in Tuscaloosa today, and baseball opens with Xavier tomorrow at 3pm. Both are streamable via the ESPN app. Meanwhile, the Gym Tide take on LSU in Baton Rouge tonight at 8pm on ESPN.

The big news of the day is this release from the College Football Playoff.

“The Board of Managers has accepted a recommendation from the Management Committee to continue the current four-team playoff for the next four years, as called for in the CFP’s original 12-year plan. At the same time, the Board expects the Management Committee to continue its discussions of a new format that would go into effect for the 2026-27 season.

“Even though the outcome did not lead to a recommendation for an early expansion before the end of the current 12-year contract, the discussions have been helpful and informative. I am sure they will serve as a useful guide for the Board of Managers and for the Management Committee as we determine what the Playoff will look like beginning in the 2026-2027 season.

This is good news for those of us who believe that the playoff has been detrimental to the sport as it is and don’t want to see it expanded. Four years isn’t very long though, and if the money is in expansion then it will happen.

They have sent been taken down due to copyright claims, but a couple of Nick Saban remarks at the ALFCA conference kicked off quite the conversation.

“We had three guys,” Saban told the crowd in his Jan. 27 speech to the clinic in Montgomery. “They all had a significant role in the national championship game and not one of them — not one — could take advantage of the opportunity they had.

“Because they never ground through it. They never made themselves the best player they could be. And when they got the opportunity, they couldn’t do it. It’s a lesson for everybody. What comes first? Playing time? Or making sure that you’re ready to play and create value for yourself when you get the opportunity.”

“If there was a player in Las Vegas, who was drinking at 3:00 in the morning with his buddies and his girlfriend, and somebody would’ve taken his keys away, it probably would’ve pissed him off,” Saban said in the video. “It probably would’ve made him mad. Probably wouldn’t have thought very much of you for doing that. But would he be better off now, or is he better off where he was going 156 miles per hour running into someone and killing them? And he’s in jail. And he doesn’t have a career anymore. And he’s a good kid, and he never had one problem on our team at Alabama.

“So what kind of friend were you? What kind of leader were you when you allowed the guy to do it? But nobody wants to do that because they’re afraid of what somebody’s going to think of them.”

I’ll leave it to you to speculate on who those three players might be. His comments on Ruggs drew some criticism from those claiming that he was blaming others for Henry’s indiscretions, but anyone who believes that hasn’t listened to Nick for very long. I hope that we all want to be the person with the courage to take those keys away.

Last, there will be a dance-a-thon on campus this weekend to benefit the children’s hospital.

Some University of Alabama students will put on their dancing shoes this weekend, for a good cause.

BAMAthon, a 12-hour dance marathon for charity, returns Saturday to the Student Center ballroom.

Last year, BAMAthon was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the event still managed to raise $303,126 for Children’s of Alabama hospital in Birmingham.

Great stuff.

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.