Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne hinted at changes in how the Crimson Tide would handle their nonconference scheduling going forward after they were left out of the College Football Playoff.
The College Football Playoff committee picked SMU over Alabama for the final at-large bid spot in this year’s college football postseason, which did not sit well with Byrne, who went to social media to vent his disappointment.
“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,” he wrote in a lengthy statement on X.
Byrne then suggested the committee’s decision would have an impact on how Alabama would schedule games, one of which he suggested would not be a good thing for the sport as a whole.
“We have said that we would need to see how strength of schedule would be evaluated by the CFP,” he said. “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.”
The decision not to include Alabama in the playoff means that they will take part in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Dec. 31 in Tampa against Michigan, which will provide a chance for the two schools for a rematch after last year’s Rose Bowl.
Alabama finished 9-3 this year and had the 11th-best strength of record, per ESPN.
SMU’s strength of record was 15th in the country.
College Football Playoff committee chair Warde Manuel said during ESPN’s selection show that Alabama’s upset losses played a factor in their decision-making.
“We looked at the number of wins Alabama had against ranked opponents,” Manuel said, according to Sports Illustrated. “We looked at SMU’s schedule, and they were undefeated in conference. Their losses were to ranked teams. We also looked at Alabama’s losses to unranked teams, and it was quite a debate.”
