Although Nick Saban may have retired from coaching and moved onto the media scene, he still doesn’t forget when he feels like he’s been wronged.
In 2022, Alabama missed out on a berth in the four-team College Football Playoff in favor of 12-1 TCU who was coming off of a close loss in the Big 12 Championship Game. Saban is still salty about the omission, and stated his case for why his Crimson Tide team was better than the Horned Frogs on Friday during The Pat McAfee Show.
Nick Saban talked about when TCU got into the CFP and Alabama didn’t
(via @PatMcAfeeShow) pic.twitter.com/zYmNRoI2qh
— ESPN (@espn) November 22, 2024
“It was all subjective,” Saban said. “The one thing, we would’ve been 13-point favorites over TCU if we would’ve played them and they got in the playoffs and we didn’t. I’m not criticizing TCU, it’s not their fault, but that’s the subjective part of it.”
Of course, Alabama missed out on the CFP in 2022 largely because they did not reach the SEC Championship Game due to a loss to LSU. The Tigers then went on to lose to eventual National Champion Georgia in the conference title game. If Alabama had beaten LSU in Death Valley, they would have had a significantly better chance of getting in.
TCU also won a National Semifinal game in 2022 against Michigan in a game where the Horned Frogs were 7.5-point underdogs, so prospective point spreads aren’t everything. However, Saban’s sentiment has been echoed by many SEC fans, players and coaches in the lead to the CFP this season.
Alabama football in a good spot in CFP race
Despite being in the middle of a very clustered SEC race, Alabama is in a great spot to earn one of the 12 spots in the upcoming expanded College Football Playoff this season. The Crimson Tide went through a rough patch in its first season with Kalen DeBoer at the helm, losing games against Vanderbilt and Tennessee, but it has recovered and now looks to be sailing toward the postseason.
There are currently five SEC teams sitting with two losses, all trailing Texas who is 9-1. All five of those teams are ranked between No. 7 and No. 15 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings and they all beat each other, making them very hard to rank.
As it stands now, Alabama can take solace in the fact that they are the highest-ranked team out of that bunch at No. 7. DeBoer and company are also the only team out of that group who is ranked ahead of Miami, so Alabama seemingly has a good amount of cushion heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.
Alabama has also already played the toughest games on its schedule. On top of the loss to Tennessee, Alabama picked up big wins over Georgia, LSU and Missouri, giving them a very strong resume. Now, the Crimson Tide just need to win games over Oklahoma and Auburn to get to 10-2 and sit in a good spot to earn a berth in both the SEC Championship Game and the CFP.
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