The Alabama Crimson Tide were on the outside looking into the College Football Playoff bracket on Sunday after Clemson received the No. 12 seed and SMU got an at-large bid.
Alabama hoped the College Football Playoff selection committee would look at their overall body of work after conference championship weekend. The committee had Alabama as the No. 11 seed last week, but the Crimson Tide had nothing to play for on Saturday.
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As a result of Clemson’s last-second win over SMU, both ACC schools received bids into the 12-team field. No. 11 SMU is set to hit the road to play No. 6 Penn State.
The college football world seemingly cheered as fans learned Alabama would miss the playoff.
Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne made a pitch to the committee late Saturday.
"Strength of schedule matters," he wrote on X. "Not all schedules and conferences are created equal.
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"Six of our eight wins are against bowl eligible teams and have come against some of the top teams in the SEC, including SEC champion Georgia."
Byrne also included a graphic, showing that Alabama was No. 3 in opponents’ winning percentage, No. 17 in ESPN strength of schedule and had three wins against teams in the College Football Top 25 poll. The team finished 9-3 and had some brutal losses.
It’s the first year of the 12-team field for the College Football Playoff. The field expanded from four teams.
The Crimson Tide were in last year’s playoff but fell to No. 1 Michigan, 27-20. It was Nick Saban’s last game as head coach. Kalen DeBoer took over before the start of the 2024 season.
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