Some of the top coaches in the SEC are in attendance at the coaches conference this week put on by the Minority Coaches Association of Georgia.

While speaking at the conference, several top SEC head coaches touched on the future of the college football playoff.

Nick Saban spoke about the great experience that Alabama had in this year’s playoff, but also cautioned against its expansion and the resulting impact it would have on the bowl system:

“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to coexist with a bowl system and a playoff system,” he said. “I think you’ve got to have one or the other. You know, if we’re going to have an eight-team playoff, 16-team playoff, I don’t think you’re going to have bowl games. I’m not advocating either one. I’m just saying it’s going to be difficult for those two things to coexist.”

He noted the lack of attendance and interest in some of the smaller bowl games. While plenty of interest was created for the CFP, he said, it subtracted from the attention given to the other games. In his estimation, it’s a problem because it takes away the opportunities for “positive self-gratification” for a number of players on teams that do not have as much success at the end of the year.

We’ve written at length about this topic, and could not agree more. The bigger the playoff gets, the more the bowls outside the playoff will suffer.

New Florida head coach Jim McElwain also cited a concern about expanding the playoff and the bowl system losing significance: “The issue there is that I think it will lose a lot of what is college football.”

Aggies’ head coach Kevin Sumlin strongly supports the playoff staying at a four-team field. “I think what people have to remember is that this is college football, not pro football,” he said. “Particularly in the league that we’re in.”

College football seems to be in a nice “sweet spot” with the four-team playoff. The wonderful regular season has not been significantly jeopardized, the bowls are still somewhat entertaining and important and the four-team playoff has been a big success. Let’s hope that we don’t screw it up.

[h/t Ledger-Enquirer]