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The Alabama Crimson Tide will not be playing for a national title this season. The team was left out of the 12-team College Football Playoff field on Sunday following a 9-3 season.
Athletic director Greg Byrne attempted to trash the committee’s decision after the fact. He doesn’t believe Alabama’s strength of schedule was weighed heavily enough in the selection process.
The Crimson Tide ranked amongst the top teams when it came to schedule difficulty having played teams like Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU throughout the regular season. Against four ranked foes, they finished 3-1. Unfortunately, bad losses to Oklahoma and Vanderbilt ultimately proved too much to overcome.
SMU was given the No. 11 seed after losing the ACC Championship Game to Clemson. The Mustangs finished the year with no ranked wins. The committee decided that their 11-1 regular season record was more impressive than Alabama’s three-loss campaign. The Mustangs weren’t going to be punished for playing in the conference title.
Greg Byrne took offense to that line of thinking. He doesn’t think you should be rewarded for playing a less challenging schedule. He sent a scathing message on social media after the fact blasting the committee.
Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country. We had an extremely challenging schedule and recognize there were two games in particular that we did not perform as well as we should have.
We have said that we would need to see how strength of schedule would be evaluated by the CFP. With this outcome, we will need to assess how many P4 non-conference games make sense in the future to put us in the best position to participate in the CFP. That is not good for college football.
-Greg Byrne
His message didn’t quite hit the mark! There’s no denying Alabama’s strength of schedule. They played one of the more difficult slates in college football. With that being said, scheduling had little to do with the outcome!
The Crimson Tide won all four of their non-conference games, with the most difficult being a trip to Wisconsin. You could argue that SMU’s out of conference slate was more challenging with matchups vs. an eight-win TCU squad and a 10-win BYU team.
Some others included in the field, like Clemson and Boise State, played more difficult non-conference schedules, too. The fact of the matter is that it didn’t matter who Alabama scheduled. It lost conference games, which it’s unable to avoid playing given the league affiliation.
That point was made clear when followers community noted Byrne on X.
X: Greg Byrne
Byrne’s anger appears to be directed at the wrong person. Alabama plays in one of the most difficult conferences in college football. The schedule is going to be tough in most years, and Byrne’s suggestion to re-evaluate how he looks at out of league opponents won’t change that.
SMU won all of its conference games, and while it had the luxury of missing other ACC title contenders Miami and Clemson in the regular season, it did what it could to schedule competent foes in non-conference play. The committee gave the Mustangs the nod. Alabama will have to watch from the sidelines this season.