Nick Saban Reacts to Alabama Being Left Out of 12-Team College Football Playoff

The former Crimson Tide head coach explained why athletic directors could look to schedule easier opponents in the future.

Saban coached at Alabama for 17 seasons. / Screenshot via @awfulannouncing on X.

After the Alabama Crimson Tide were passed over by the SMU Mustangs for the 11th seed in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff, their former head coach in Nick Saban had some words on the inconsistences of the rankings system.

As part of ESPN's College Football Playoff Selection Show on Sunday afternoon, the seven-time national champion explained why in the future, some athletic directors may opt to schedule easier opponents in order to give their team's a better chance at playoff:

"I think one of the things that I've mentioned throughout this football season is: If we don't take strength of schedule into consideration, is there any benefit to scheduling really good teams in the future?" Saban asked.

"Like here at Alabama we're supposed to play Notre Dame, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Florida State in the future outside the league. Well 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... 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."

Nick Saban reacts to the CFP Selection Committee's decision to put SMU into the College Football Playoff field over Alabama. 🏈📺🎙️🏆 https://t.co/ZVVfzFwggY pic.twitter.com/Im5VgIPtiX

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 8, 2024

For context: Alabama's 9-3 2024 season consisted of the 16th-ranked strength of schedule and a 3-1 record against ranked teams. SMU, meanwhile, held the sixth ranked SOS and went 0-2 vs. ranked opponents.

Saban went on to say that teams should have no excuse for where they were slated.

"I do think the best teams are in the playoff, which I think is most important," he continued. "And no coach should have any complaint about what his circumstance is relative to getting in the playoffs or out of the playoff. Because they all controlled their own destiny and they all had opportunities and they had some flaws and bad losses that contributed to their circumstances. So this could be a learning lesson for each and every team and every individual on those teams."

SMU (No. 11) is slated to travel to Penn State (No. 6) for the first round of the College Football Playoff on Dec. 21 for a 12 p.m. EST kickoff. The Crimson Tide await their non-playoff bowl designation.

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