Nick Saban questions strength of schedule factor in CFP as Alabama misses field

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban took aim at strength of schedule being a true factor when it came to rankings and seeding for the College Football Playoff on Sunday.

Saban watched as his old team was left out of the 12-team field while SMU was able to get into the bracket despite losing the ACC Championship to Clemson. Alabama was seeded No. 11 in the penultimate rankings but failed to find its way into the final bracket reveal.

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Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne pointed out late Saturday that the Crimson Tide were No. 3 in opponents’ winning percentage and had three wins against teams in the CFP poll before the bracket was released. He wrote on X that “strength of schedule matters.”

But Saban suggested on ESPN that Alabama may have been thought more highly of if strength of schedule truly mattered.

“I think one of the things that I’ve mentioned throughout this football season is if we don’t take strength of scheduling into consideration, is there any benefit to scheduling really good teams in the future,” Saban said. “Like, here at Alabama, who’s supposed to play Notre Dame, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Florida State in the future outside of the (SEC).

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“Well, those are great games for fans to see – and that’s what I think we should be doing in college football, it’s creating more inventory for great games that people are interested in – but do you enhance people wanting to do that where what’s the athletic director going to do, he may go cancel all those games now knowing that the SEC is tough enough.”

Saban did say, however, he thought the 12 best teams in college football were represented in the bracket.

“But at the same time I do think the best teams are in the playoff, which I think is most important,” Saban said. “And no coach should have any complaint about his circumstance is relative to get into the playoff or out of the playoff because they all controlled their own destiny and they all had opportunities. They had some flaws and bad losses that contributed to their circumstances. 

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“So, this could be a learning lesson for each and every team and every individual on those teams.”

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