Alabama Athletic Director Sends Message to College Football Playoff Committee

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe (4) runs the ball against South Carolina during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. AP Photo/Vasha Hunt

Alabama will go to a bowl game instead of the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff, but athletic director Greg Byrne already has a big adjustment in mind.

Bryne first stated via social media platform X on Sunday that he was “disappointed” in the No. 11 Crimson Tide (9–3) missing the playoff field. Sixteenth-ranked Clemson (10–3) winning the ACC instead of No. 10 SMU (11–2) ultimately bumped the Tide out of the playoff field as the first team out.

Byrne now wants to reevaluate the Tide’s future non-conference scheduling to improve chances with the playoff committee in the years to come. Alabama’s non-conference slate included Wisconsin, South Florida, Western Kentucky, and Mercer, an FCS team. Only Wisconsin plays in a Power Four conference, while USF and WKU are from Group of Five schools.

“We have said that we would need to see how the strength of schedule would be evaluated by the CFP,” Byrne wrote. “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.”

That said, Bryne acknowledged that the Tide’s losses in SEC play to unranked Oklahoma and Vanderbilt didn’t help. The Tide also lost to No. 7 Tennessee (10–2), which made the 12-team field.

No at-large team in the playoffs has fewer than 10 wins and more than two losses. Clemson only got into the ACC Championship Game with three losses because of No. 13 Miami (10—2) losing to Syracuse the week before.

SMU won more games than Alabama, and the Mustangs’ lone loss before Clemson came against a BYU team (10–2) that stayed in contention for the Big 12 title most of the season. Other at-large teams such as No. 6 Ohio State (10–2) and No. 8 Indiana (11–1) only lost to ranked or bowl bound-teams. Fifth-ranked Notre Dame (11–1) lost to Northern Illinois in the second game of the season but the Fighting Irish never lost again and beat three ranked opponents along the way.

Alabama played four ranked teams at the time in a grueling SEC schedule, which included wins over No. 2 Georgia, then-No. 21 Missouri, and then-No. 15 LSU. While the Tide lost by a score to Vanderbilt and Tennessee, Alabama stumbled against the Sooners in a 24—3 defeat on Nov. 23.

Consequently, the second-winningest program in college football will miss the debut of the 12-field this year. Alabama has been synonymous with the national championship game since 2009, when the Tide won the first of six titles under former head coach Nick Saban, who led the team from 2007 to 2023.

Next season, the Tide’s non-conference schedule will get a little stronger with Florida State and Wisconsin.