Greg Sankey answers if he was surprised by Alabama missing College Football Playoff in 2024

Alabama was the only team last season that finished in top 12 of the College Football Playoff rankings but was excluded from the CFP. At the 2025 SEC Spring Meetings on Tuesday, conference commissioner Greg Sankey weighed in on the CFP selection committee’s decision to not include Alabama.

“I don’t know that I’d say surprised. I think that’s one of the realities,” Sankey said. “But I spoke in July at media days, asking how will a 9-3 team, and I used Georgia as a really good example given their three really difficult road games, how do you evaluate that against other teams that don’t come anywhere close to that?

“And as I said, we learned something the first time through (the 12-team playoff selection process). And that raises the need for deeper analysis and understanding. If we’re gonna just incentivize wins, playing fewer winning teams can get your to more wins. I don’t think that’s great for the football.”

Alabama finished the season with a 9-3 record. The Crimson Tide had the No. 20 strength of schedule in the country last season, according to ESPN.

Alabama had several standout wins during the season against Georgia, South Carolina, Missouri and LSU. The team’s 41-34 win over Georgia on Sept. 28 catapulted them into the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25.

However, the Crimson Tide came crashing down the following week in a stunning 40-35 loss to Vanderbilt. Just two weeks later, Alabama lost again, this time to Tennessee.

Nonetheless, Alabama bounced back immediately with a statement 34-0 win over Missouri. The Crimson Tide followed up the victory with a 42-13 triumph over LSU and a comfortable 52-7 win against an inferior Mercer squad.

Despite its mid-season stumble, Alabama looked like a shoo-in for the CFP. Then, in Week 12, disaster struck. The Crimson Tide suffered an unfathomable 24-3 blowout loss against Oklahoma.

The loss was a massive blow to Alabama’s CFP hopes. Alas, after Alabama defeated Auburn in the regular-season finale, many experts still expects the Crimson Tide to squeak into the playoffs.

Instead, the CFP selection committee rewarded teams like Indiana and SMU that had better regular-season records but played against inferior competition. For reference, in ESPN’s strength-of-schedule rankings, Indiana finished at No. 35 and SMU at No. 41.

Sankey isn’t the only one who believes that Alabama’s strong schedule ultimately hurt them in the selection committee’s eyes. On Tuesday, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer took a dig at the teams that made the CFP over the Crimson Tide last season.

“You wonder what would have happened if other people would have played our schedule,” DeBoer said, per Action Network‘s Brett McMurphy.