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Alabama AD Greg Byrne reacts to Tide being left out of College Football Playoff

1918632_10206777287683070_1367905321192383146_nby: Charlie Potter12/08/24Charlie_Potter
Alabama AD Greg Byrne
Alabama AD Greg Byrne (Brianna Paciorka / Imagn Images)

Alabama was left out of the College Football Playoff on Sunday, and Crimson Tide director of athletics Greg Byrne shared his thoughts on Alabama being left on the outside looking in.

“Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country,” Byrne said on X. “We had an extremely challenging schedule and recognize there were two games in particular that we did not perform as well as we should have.”

Alabama (9-3, 5-3 SEC) lost games at Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma this fall. The Vols are playoff-bound, and while Vanderbilt and Oklahoma will play in bowl games, those two losses hampered the Tide’s CFP resume. The selection committee picked SMU as the 11 seed rather than Alabama, despite the Mustangs not having a win over a top-25 opponent.

Alabama’s strength of schedule (No. 16) was superior to SMU (60), per ESPN’s Football Power Index. But that data point wasn’t enough to earn the Tide an at-large playoff berth. It might also lead Byrne to reconsider his scheduling philosophy. For the next 10 seasons, Alabama has two non-conference games against Power Four opponents on its schedule. 

“We have said that we would need to see how strength of schedule would be evaluated by the CFP,” Byrne said. “With this outcome, we will need to assess how many P4 non-conference games make sense in the future to put us in the best position to participate in the CFP. That is not good for college football.”

No. 11 Alabama will now face Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The Rose Bowl rematch is set for Tuesday, December 31, at 11 a.m. CT (ESPN).

“With that said, we do not need to hang our heads and now need to finish this season strong. We have a great group of young men who have led us with Coach DeBoer through the last year and we look forward to our opportunity in the @ReliaQuestBowl.  #RollTide”

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