DESTIN, Fla. -- With the College Football Playoff to start in 2014, Alabama coach Nick Saban wants to make sure the SEC gets its due regarding strength of schedule within the league.

Saban said Tuesday prior to the start of the SEC spring meetings that he's not sure this has been the case under the old system.

"We talk about trying to create some kind of strength of schedule [formula]. That's difficult to do," Saban said. "We had six [SEC] teams at the end of the [regular] season last year in the top 10, and other teams are vying to get into the championship game.

"And then to think that the team that loses our championship game wouldn't have gotten into the Final Four if we'd had one. I mean, that's not a strength-of-schedule consideration at all. It's taking how many games you lose into consideration. If we all played more good opponents, you could lose more games and still have a chance to get recognized as being a good team."

Saban, whose Crimson Tide have won three of the past four national championships, wants to see the SEC go from eight to nine conference games.

But in doing so, he said SEC teams shouldn't be penalized by the selection committee just because they lose more games.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive said he has had "healthy" discussions with league coaches and athletic directors about expanding the conference schedule to nine games.

"I certainly don't believe we'll come to any closure here, but my hope is that everybody who has a view will weigh in on the discussion and share with everybody here and we'll see where we are by Friday as to what the next step is," Slive said. "Obviously, it's an important issue and it's one that we're going to give a lot of thought to."

LSU coach Les Miles said he wants to see a more balanced schedule that eliminates permanent cross-divisional games.

"I think you should play everybody in your conference, and I don't think it's difficult to do," he said.