Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban was quick to react and provide his initial thoughts on the College Football Playoff committee’s decision to place SMU in over Alabama.
“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,” Saban said, “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.”
Now that the committee has set the precedent that strength of schedule is not the key determining factor, is it really worth Alabama playing power-four opponents in non-conference games in the future? Saban seems to think Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne should reconsider scheduling in the future.
The Alabama-SMU dilemma will certainly change the way that college football programs view the College Football Playoff and their chances of reaching it at the end of the day. It will alter scheduling and steps that programs take in order to earn a College Football Playoff bid. The committee will have to explain itself in the future for the decision to place SMU in over Alabama. Some things just do not add up. For Alabama, this one might not ever add up.
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Brody Smoot is a team reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “follow” him on X, via @brodysmoot.
