The Alabama Crimson Tide were not among the 12 teams to make the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoffs.
The bracket, announced Sunday, had Alabama as the first team out.
Alabama likely lost its spot when the Clemson Tigers defeated the SMU Mustangs on Saturday night with a game-winning field goal. The victory gave Clemson the ACC’s auto bid and moved SMU down to an at-large spot.
There are no shortage of reasons for the Tide’s absence from the field. It was the first season under new head coach Kalen DeBoer after Nick Saban’s shocking January retirement. DeBoer took a bit to stabilize the program, and there was an adjustment period.
Perhaps the biggest thing that cost the Tide a playoff spot was their relatively tame nonconference schedule. Alabama’s lone nonconference game against a Power Four school was a 42-10 thrashing of the Wisconsin Badgers in Madison. That win didn’t get a chance to age well. Wisconsin finished 5-7 and missed a bowl game for the first time in 22 years.
On Sunday night, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne expressed disappointment on his X account. He also suggested that Alabama assess how many Power Four nonconference games to schedule.
Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country. 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.
We have said that we would need to see how…
— Greg Byrne (@Greg_Byrne) December 8, 2024
The Crimson Tide lost three SEC games. Two of the losses were to the Vanderbilt Commodores and Oklahoma Sooners, who finished in the bottom five of the conference standings.
While a second Power Four game besides Wisconsin would likely have boosted Alabama’s stock, the easiest thing to have done would have been to not lose to a pair of conference bottom feeders.
As it stands right now, Alabama has two Power Four nonconference games next season. They’ll open the season in Tallahassee against the Florida State Seminoles, and host Wisconsin in the return game a few weeks later.
Alabama will take on the Michigan Wolverines in the Reliaquest Bowl on New Year’s Eye.
