Could Alabama football really have a softer schedule moving forward after missing the College Football Playoff?
Greg Byrne, the Director of Athletics for the University of Alabama, stated on X that the program will ‘assess’ scheduling non-conference opponents that will better position it to participate in the CFP. The Crimson Tide played a tough conference schedule, which included three victories over top 25 teams, but it also had a non-conference schedule that was not challenging.
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Alabama faced Wisconsin, South Florida, Western Kentucky, and Mercer out of conference. Colin Cowherd, the host of The Herd/with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports 1 (FS1), took a shot at Byrne for wanting to ‘soften’ the Crimson Tide’s schedule.
.@ColinCowherd reacts to SMU making CFP over Alabama:
“They need to soften their schedule? What’s weaker than Mercer?” pic.twitter.com/Et26WS3O4N
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) December 9, 2024
“Athletic Director Greg Byrne said he would need to assess the rigorous non-conference schedules going forward for Alabama. You mean the rigorous out of conference schedule that included Mercer, Western Kentucky, South Florida, and a bad Wisconsin team this year? What a bunch of nonsense that is,” Cowherd said on Monday. “I thought ‘Bama would get in. Nobody can cry for Bama. First of all, Bama loves benefitting from the SEC. The money, the TV revenue, the marketing, the recruiting power. … All those SEC teams love benefitting from it. But the minute things don’t go your way, Bama’s like ‘well it is just so rigorous.’ Is it? Tennessee is one of your better teams, they lost to 6-6 Arkansas. Bama is one of your better teams, they got shelled by a bad Oklahoma team. Give me a break. I am willing to give somebody a mulligan, but Vandy and Oklahoma beat you? So, they need to soften their schedule? What is weaker than Mercer? I mean how many directional schools can Alabama put on it. You went Western Kentucky, you wanna schedule Eastern Kentucky too? The other thing is the SEC only plays eight conference games. The Big Ten plays nine conference games. So don’t give me that. If you want to schedule three or four more cupcakes, go for it.”
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Cowherd continued his point at Byrne with the schedule can’t get weaker for Alabama than Mercer, a directional Florida school, a directional Kentucky school, and Wisconsin who is a bad Wisconsin team.
“No tears here for Alabama,” Cowherd said.
Alabama takes on Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa (Fla.) on New Year’s Eve.
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Stephen M. Smith is the senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
