However, due to the paucity of evidence, many scholars treat it as an independent language family.

Among scholars who do accept its inclusion within Nilo-Saharan, opinions vary as to their position within it.

Otero's (2019: 28) internal classification of Koman:[2] Dimmendaal (2008) notes that mounting grammatical evidence has made the Nilo-Saharan proposal as a whole more sound since Greenberg proposed it in 1963 but that such evidence has not been forthcoming for Songhay, Gumuz, and Koman: "very few of the more widespread nominal and verbal morphological markers of Nilo-Saharan are attested in the Coman languages plus Gumuz ... Their genetic status remains debatable, mainly due to lack of more extensive data."

(2008:843) And later, "In summarizing the current state of knowledge, ... the following language families or phyla can be identified: ... Mande, Songhai, Ubangian, Kadu, and the Coman languages plus Gumuz."

(2008:844) However, Ahland (2010) reports that with better attestation, both Koman and Gumuz do appear to be Nilo-Saharan, and perhaps closest to each other.