Nick Saban is no longer the coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. He definitely still has a soft spot for his former program. Going into the weekend, the Crimson Tide were projected to be in the 12-team College Football Playoff by the committee. However, chaos reigned on Saturday with Clemson, who was not projected to be in, winning the ACC and an automatic bid. The committee then decided to keep SMU in and bump out Alabama. They were the first team out. Saban had some words for the committee about their choice.
Nick Saban On The College Football Playoff
Nick Saban has an issue with the strength of schedule. Alabama played one of the toughest schedules in the country. While they lost three games, week in and week out, they had to play some of the toughest teams in the country. SMU does not have a win over a team that is currently ranked, and the ACC was a much worse conference. The legendary coach thinks this is a bad look for college football and made his opinion known on ESPN.
“If we don’t take strength of schedule into consideration, is there any benefit to scheduling really good teams in the future. Here at Alabama, we’re supposed to play Notre Dame, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Florida State in the future outside the league. Those are great games for fans to see, and that’s what I think we should be doing in college football is creating more good inventory for great games that people are interested in, but do you enhance people wanting to do that — what’s the athletic director going to do? He may go cancel all those games now, knowing the SEC is tough enough.”
Many teams schedule tough out-of-conference games to keep their strength of schedule high. The SEC does have many of the nation’s top teams and therefore leads to a higher strength of schedule. Nick Saban is worried about the unintended consequences. Many arguments will be made, but the fact remains that the committee respects wins.
Just Win
Here’s where I land on this whole situation. If Alabama had one less loss, it would have been a crime to keep them out. Had their three losses been against Georgia, Texas, and Tennessee, I would have been more open. The Crimson Tide lost to Vanderbilt, who finished the season 6-6. Their high-powered offense only scored three (THREE!!!) points against Oklahoma, which also finished 6-6. Those are bad losses. The loss against the Sooners especially. That one wasn’t on a last-second field goal. They were completely dominated. It is difficult to hear about what Alabama deserves when they were squashed by the Sooners.
Strength of schedule is important but there are other factors too. The College Football Playoff committee took appearances in the conference championship into account. No doubt this is why SMU got in. It would also have set a bad precedent to have a team sit at home for championship weekend but get in over a team that lost. There isn’t an easy answer, but one thing is clear: just win. Win, and you won’t have any problems.
Final Thoughts
No matter how many teams the College Football Playoff expands to, there will always be a fanbase upset. In the NCAA basketball tournament, 68 teams make it, and there are still teams that believe they got snubbed. As a college football fan, I am excited that we get to see Ashton Jeanty in the playoffs as well as some of the teams who had tough losses in big games. No matter who is in, this is going to be a fun last month of college football.
