Alabama Crimson Tide: Nick Saban calls College Football Playoff rankings 'poison'

The first College Football Playoff rankings will be released on Tuesday night and Alabama coach Nick Saban is hardly intrigued.

"What significance does a poll have right now?" Saban rhetorically asked reporters at his Monday morning news conference. "All we're talking about here is the challenge of our season and where we're going to be in the poll if we don't play well in the next four games, so I'm focusing on the next four games. I could care less about the poll."

Saban is focusing on Saturday's opponent, No. 21 LSU.

The Crimson Tide (8-0, 5-0 SEC) has been the top-ranked team in both major polls throughout the season and has been a unanimous No. 1 in the coaches poll each of the last two weeks.

Alabama is the only team to make appearances in each of the three College Football Playoffs and has won three of five games in the new format.

"What really matters is how you play the rest of the season, how you focus the rest of the season, how you stay focused the rest of the season," Saban said. "If our players think anything of it, then that could be a problem and an issue, too. These are the things that we try to categorize as 'poison' that you really don't want your players to be focusing on or thinking about."

It sounds like the Alabama players have heard their coach's message loud and clear.

Star running back Damien Harris said, "It doesn't matter at all."

The rankings will be unveiled at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN during a one-hour show.