The Alabama Crimson Tide benefitted from a shocking decision from the College Football Playoff selection committee on Sunday when the committee chose Alabama for the final spot in the four-team playoff over the undefeated Florida State Seminoles. But even though his team benefitted from the decision this time, Nick Saban wants people to realize that he understands what it’s like to be in a different situation.
During his weekly appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, Nick Saban opened up a little bit about the selection committee’s controversial decision, making it clear that he empathizes with Florida State because his team has been in that situation in the past.
“Everybody needs to understand — and my phone’s been getting blowed up from people who didn’t get in as if I’m responsible for that — look, we’ve been on the other side of this,” Saban said on the show according to On3. “We’ve been on the outside looking in.”
While Saban is happy that his team made the field, and he’s not apologizing for lobbying for his team to make the field in the first place, he does understand exactly what it’s like to be the team left out of the field and believing that they should have had a chance.
“We’ve been the team that didn’t get in,” Saban said. “We’ve been the fifth place team. So we kind of know how it feels, and I actually feel bad about it because there really are a lot of teams this year who could make an argument to say, ‘We should be there.’ And I get that.”