Nick Saban blows off talk of first College Football Playoff rankings

Alabama coach Nick Saban could not care any less about the release of the initial College Football Playoff rankings.

The CFP Committee will release their first set of rankings for the 2017 season on Tuesday night, but Saban, whose Crimson Tide will likely be No. 1, won’t be watching.

“I could care less about the poll,” Saban said, via Alex Scarborough of ESPN. “What significance does a poll have right now? All we’re talking about right here is the challenge of our season, and where are we going to be in the poll if we don’t play well in the next four games? So I’m focused on the next four games. I could care less about the poll. You won’t see me waste any time watching TV or who is 1 and who is 2. It doesn’t really matter. What really matters is how you play the rest of the season.”

Saban went as far as to characterize the poll as “poison” and said it would be a problem if any of his players were paying too much attention to it.

“If our players think anything of [the poll], then that could be an issue,” Saban said. “These are the things we try to categorize as poison that you really don’t want your players to be focused on.”

Saban is tough and wants to keep his team laser-focused, but quite frankly, he is correct. The initial poll is little more than a snapshot that can and will change — perhaps significantly — before the field is announced. Alabama has every chance of walking into the field as the No. 1 team, but they would have known that with or without the release of the rankings.