Alabama AD to reevaluate nonconference slate after CFP picks

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RememberMurray

RememberMurray

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Interesting. Their non conference schedule was...

— Western Kentucky

— South Florida

— Wisconsin

— Mercer

www.espn.com

Alabama AD to reevaluate nonconference slate after CFP picks

Alabama AD Greg Byrne said he would need to assess his nonconference scheduling philosophy moving forward after being left out of the College Football Playoff field.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 

Their non-conference schedule had little to do with them being excluded. It has everything to do with losing three games. If you lose a quarter of your games.....TWO of which were to teams that finished 6-6.....you probably don't belong in the national title conversation. Not sorry.
 


How does Alabama endure such persecution - given all the obstacles they must face in: exposure, recruiting, financial resources, reputation?!?

Who will join me and start influencing the powers that be to (for once) start being more equitable and fair the Crimson Tide?
 

Team with every advantage in the game loses three games (including to not good teams) and they throw a fit that it is everyone else’s fault…
 



RememberMurray said:
Interesting. Their non conference schedule was...

— Western Kentucky

— South Florida

— Wisconsin

— Mercer

www.espn.com

Alabama AD to reevaluate nonconference slate after CFP picks

Alabama AD Greg Byrne said he would need to assess his nonconference scheduling philosophy moving forward after being left out of the College Football Playoff field.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
Click to expand...
Talk about a gauntlet.

If anything, they should re-evaluate and actually play someone so when they have a hiccup vs. Vanderbilt and/or Oklahoma they could bounce back and say at least we beat team __________.
 


SeaBee_Gopher said:
All three loses were to conference opponents. Maybe they should transfer down to an FCS Conference so they can win more conference games. Sounds like they can't hack the SEC anymore...
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Exactly. Watching the media fall for Bama's talking points about "well, I guess CFB needs to reassess non-conf games now since they don't matter" is so stupid. Bama lost to Vandy and got spanked by a very mediocre/bad OU team.
 



i get that there’s no sympathy for Alabama (or the SEC), but does anyone on here actually believe SMU, Clemson, and Arizona State are better than Alabama, Ol Miss and South Carolina?
 

Goldmember said:
i get that there’s no sympathy for Alabama (or the SEC), but does anyone on here actually believe SMU, Clemson, and Arizona State are better than Alabama, Ol Miss and South Carolina?
Click to expand...
I believe I would rather have them in the playoffs.

I bet when the NFL playoffs are set we could find a non playoff team who would be favored against a playoff team… but so what 🤷‍♀️
 

Goldmember said:
i get that there’s no sympathy for Alabama (or the SEC), but does anyone on here actually believe SMU, Clemson, and Arizona State are better than Alabama, Ol Miss and South Carolina?
Click to expand...
I think Clemson and SMU are about even with Bama, and Arizona state is a bit worse (I’d put it at Alabama -4.5 or so at a neutral site) but obviously gets in via the autobid. Who, knows, you might catch them on a Vanderbilt or Oklahoma week and they get blown out by the likes of Army or UNLV.
 

Goldmember said:
i get that there’s no sympathy for Alabama (or the SEC), but does anyone on here actually believe SMU, Clemson, and Arizona State are better than Alabama, Ol Miss and South Carolina?
Click to expand...
Guess we'll have to see how they perform in the playoffs. Everyone wrote off Boise St. Vs Oklahoma back in the day and it ended up being one of the best upset games ever. Plus, with NIL and the loosened transfer rules, you'll see a lot more parity across the top now
 



Goldmember said:
i get that there’s no sympathy for Alabama (or the SEC), but does anyone on here actually believe SMU, Clemson, and Arizona State are better than Alabama, Ol Miss and South Carolina?
Click to expand...
Maybe, maybe not but you can't just exclude the other power 4 conferences so Arizona State and Clemson deserve to be there because they won their conferences. SMU is lacking the great win but also doesn't have a bad loss and made it to their conference championship game.

The Big Ten and SEC are the deepest conferences from top to bottom but that doesn't mean there are not quality teams at the top of the ACC and Big 12. I absolutely think Clemson, SMU, and Arizona State could hang with the likes of Alabama, Ol Miss and South Carolina.

We will see how the other 5 fare against the mighty Big Ten and SEC in the playoff. I would love to see those teams do well, especially when they play SEC teams.
 

stocker08 said:
Their non-conference schedule had little to do with them being excluded. It has everything to do with losing three games. If you lose a quarter of your games.....TWO of which were to teams that finished 6-6.....you probably don't belong in the national title conversation. Not sorry.
Click to expand...
I am confused as to why they have chosen to lock in on this as a major issue as it had zero to do with them not making the playoff. I mean I guess I get it in theory if strength of schedule isn't going to play a factor then there is very little incentive for Big Ten and SEC teams to schedule games against power 4 conference teams because the loss would hurt them more than the win would help them. May as well just play all cupcakes to guarantee you win them all.

But in this particular case Alabama's non-conf schedule isn't what kept them out of the playoff since they ran the table against the mediocre slate of teams they faced.
 

As long as SEC only plays 8 conference games, I hope they get excluded as often as possible. If you removed Wisconsin from this year's schedule for Alabama and replaced them with even a middling SEC team, they may have ended up with a record of 8-4.
 

The SEC is trying to bake 2-3 losses into the schedule and they can't afford to lose a non conference game. For that reason they feel they should not schedule P4 for the non conference schedule.

That will be hard when some of the teams have rivalry games that are P4. It's all fluff as they know they have to have 9 P4 teams on the schedule or they won't get the considered with 2-3 losses.
 


Goldmember said:
i get that there’s no sympathy for Alabama (or the SEC), but does anyone on here actually believe SMU, Clemson, and Arizona State are better than Alabama, Ol Miss and South Carolina?
Click to expand...
Rosters and teams aren’t the same thing.
 

Shouldn’t this be an argument for Bama to schedule stronger OOC opponents? If they’re going to pick up SEC losses then to make an argument for the playoff they need a stronger SOS and more opportunities for quality wins. Unfortunately this year Wisconsin wasn’t even a “>.500” win as they’re referring to, but if it was like 9-3 Wisky team that they beat, it would’ve strengthened their case.
 


RememberMurray said:
Interesting. Their non conference schedule was...

— Western Kentucky

— South Florida

— Wisconsin

— Mercer

www.espn.com

Alabama AD to reevaluate nonconference slate after CFP picks

Alabama AD Greg Byrne said he would need to assess his nonconference scheduling philosophy moving forward after being left out of the College Football Playoff field.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
Click to expand...
I would say losing to Vanerbilt and Oklahoma alone are two good reasons they shouldn't have made the playoffs. Those were not good teams. If you're a playoff team you can't lose to those two.

SMU lost to BYU who is 10-2 and was in contention for a playoff spot and Clemson who made the playoffs. Both close losses.

I see nothing wrong with SMU over Alabama.
 


Catechol said:
Shouldn’t this be an argument for Bama to schedule stronger OOC opponents? If they’re going to pick up SEC losses then to make an argument for the playoff they need a stronger SOS and more opportunities for quality wins. Unfortunately this year Wisconsin wasn’t even a “>.500” win as they’re referring to, but if it was like 9-3 Wisky team that they beat, it would’ve strengthened their case.
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I think one of the committee members made a comment about Bama's strength of schedule being the only reason they were even in the discussion after coming in 5th in their conference and having 3 losses.

So yeah, from that standpoint your only way in with a bad conference record would be with a really strong non-conf record, kind of like how it is for the NCAA tournament in basketball where a really tough non-conf schedule can elevate a team that might not have done as well in their conference.
 

Goldmember said:
I’m not talking about rosters.
South Carolina beat Clemson just last week. At Clemson.
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Clemson's only way in was winning their conference championship game which to their credit they did. Had they lost they would have been like Iowa State on the outside looking in.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I believe I would rather have them in the playoffs.

I bet when the NFL playoffs are set we could find a non playoff team who would be favored against a playoff team… but so what 🤷‍♀️
Click to expand...
In the case of the NFL, that’s just some random luck.

In the case of the ACC and Big 12, they pretty obviously lose 2-3 fewer games/year than they would in the Big Ten of ACC because they have lost (or never had) any programs with Top 20 resources.
 

Goldmember said:
In the case of the NFL, that’s just some random luck.

In the case of the ACC and Big 12, they pretty obviously lose 2-3 fewer games/year than they would in the Big Ten of ACC because they have lost (or never had) any programs with Top 20 resources.
Click to expand...
It's not random luck, it's just what happens even if you do have a good distribution of talent and games.
 

Goldmember said:
In the case of the NFL, that’s just some random luck.

In the case of the ACC and Big 12, they pretty obviously lose 2-3 fewer games/year than they would in the Big Ten of ACC because they have lost (or never had) any programs with Top 20 resources.
Click to expand...
No doubt the ACC and Big 12 are weak right now. And that is reflected in the fact that they only got 3 teams as opposed to the 7 from the Big Ten and SEC.

Those teams will get their shot to prove they belong. It's good for the sport that the playoff isn't just Big Ten and SEC teams....need a little variety.
 

Nonconference 2024
Georgia: Clemson, TN Tech, UMass, G Tech
Texas: Col State, Michigan, UTSA, UL Monroe
Tennessee: Chattanooga, NC State, Kent State, UTEP
Alabama: W KY, S Florida, Wisconsin, Mercer
Ole Miss: Furman, MTSU, Wake, GA Southern
South Carolina: Old Dominion, Akron, Wofford, Clemson

We might see teams like Clemson, Michigan, NC State and Wisconsin dropping off future schedules. The funny thing is that all those were wins this year. Regardless, they are tougher games that can wear on a team. I'm probably safe in saying the SEC won't be moving to 9 conference games like the other conferences.

It's not like the BG10 top teams set the world on fire with their schedules, but they have 1 more conference game.

Oregon: Idaho, Boise, Oregon St.
Penn State: UVW, Bowling Green, Kent State
Ohio State: Akron, W Michigan, Marshall.
Indiana: FIU, W Illinois, Charlotte
 


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