Alabama didn’t deserve to be in this year’s College Football Playoff.
Even the most ardent Bama supporter can admit that when the whole of the season is considered. A two-loss team, no matter how those losses occurred, is still a two-loss team, and a two-loss team has still never been given entry into the four-team tournament.
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Crimson Tide fans know this, and that’s why most don’t seem overly upset that No. 5 Alabama (10-2) missed the Playoff for just the second time in its existence and will instead meet No. 9 Kansas State in the Sugar Bowl. They’ve ridden the wave with this team this season, experiencing the crests and troughs.
They might have gotten their hopes up when USC and TCU lost on championship weekend, but they knew that Alabama wasn’t a team that had earned its place. Any entry through the door would have come from backing in.
There’s been a feeling attached to this team all season. Alabama fans got nervous when it took a last-minute field goal to knock off an average Texas team in Austin. Sure, it was the second weekend of the season and a team usually grows, but that game left doubt in the back of everyone’s mind, a pit in the stomach that never went away.
It lingered and grew with every closer-than-expected win as the season progressed. When Texas A&M had the ball on the Crimson Tide’s goal line with a chance to win on the last play, it cemented what this team was: one that played up or down to the level of competition nearly every week.
That Texas win is arguably Alabama’s best of the season, given that the Longhorns are 20th in the final CFP rankings. If it’s not Texas, it’s Mississippi State or Ole Miss. And that’s the summation of why Alabama didn’t deserve to be in the CFP. Alabama played a tough schedule — a lot tougher than some other contenders — but it didn’t have a win it could hang its hat on. And when you start comparing losses, well, then your case for the Playoff doesn’t hold when put before the jury of the CFP committee, which explained it was Ohio State’s better wins that put it in over Alabama.
Deserved is an interesting word, though, isn’t it? Especially in this case. One could reasonably question Ohio State’s deservedness, considering it was blown out on its home field in its last game of the season again rival Michigan before Utah’s win against USC on the final weekend placed the Buckeyes in the Playoff.
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That’s why deserve is the wrong word to describe it. Alabama didn’t deserve it. Ohio State didn’t deserve it. But the Buckeyes put themselves in better position with a more impressive regular season in terms of wins that mattered and one fewer loss. That’s what all of this boiled down to. Alabama lost to Tennessee and LSU and didn’t have an impressive win that swung the committee. Ohio State beat Penn State and Notre Dame while losing one fewer game.
If you want to discuss which team is better, which Nick Saban intimated during his stump speech at halftime of the Big Ten Championship Game, that’s another discussion entirely. I would hazard a guess that Georgia and Michigan would rather be preparing for Ohio State and TCU than Alabama. Oddsmakers think so too.
But that’s not how this is decided. Alabama simply didn’t do enough during the regular season to merit inclusion.
That didn’t stop some media members from whipping themselves into a frenzy at the mere mention of Alabama in the CFP in recent days, almost talking to themselves about why the Tide didn’t belong. It was a circular conversation. People in the media were offended that other people in the media questioned if Alabama was going to be in. They were outraged that Saban, when asked to do so by the media, defended his team. What did they expect him to say?
Perhaps any ire would be better directed at the whole of college football instead. Alabama and all of its warts, which included two walk-off losses, was almost good enough to get into the Playoff. Is that the Crimson Tide’s fault? That the rest of college football wasn’t good enough to push a two-loss team well outside consideration for the Playoff? That’s a college football problem, not an Alabama one.
Ultimately, this year was a pretty clear instance of there not being four championship-level teams. And this comes right on the heels of the announcement that the sport is heading for a 12-team playoff in two years.
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There’s sure to be excitement and a lot more money available with 12 teams, which will give more teams a chance to be engaged deeper into the season. Those are good things. But in a year when it’s a stretch to call four teams great, tripling the field doesn’t seem like an exercise in quality. It’s more football, and who doesn’t want more football? Just don’t try to convince me there are 12 teams that are championship-caliber.
For now, without a chance to play for a championship, Alabama is off to the Sugar Bowl, once the crown jewel of postseason play in the SEC. In the age of the four-team Playoff, it’s viewed as nearly an afterthought two out of every three years. The Crimson Tide will play against Big 12 champion Kansas State, which made its first major bowl under Chris Klieman. The teams have never previously met.
An 11 a.m. CT kickoff on New Year’s Eve with a possibly depleted roster? Should be electric. Saban knew that when he argued years ago that the Playoff would slowly siphon the excitement away from the bowls, and it’s turned out to be true.
He was noncommittal about which of his players will opt out and how many others will enter the transfer portal before the game. But he hinted at what’s coming.
“We’re going to coach the players that are there,” Saban said Sunday afternoon during the Sugar Bowl preview conference call. “We’re trying to coach them to do the best possible job that they can. We certainly have a great amount of appreciation and respect for the guys who are going to finish the season with the team, and we’re going to do the best job that we can to help those guys, put those guys in a position where they have a chance to be successful. There’ll be some opportunities for some new guys, no question, but we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
In the coming hours and days, we’ll learn how depleted Alabama will be. That’s just the reality of modern college football. Alabama had plenty of chances to ensure another chance to play for a national championship, but walk-off road losses and a season of inconsistent performances proved it wasn’t deserving.
Will a before-noon kickoff against Kansas State get anyone excited? No. But maybe it’s the perfect ending for a season of promise that turned into a letdown.
(Top photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
