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Nick Saban rants about strength of schedule, explains why SMU’s ranking was flawed entering this week
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Nick Saban is used to being on the other side of the fence on days like Sunday, but now the longtime Alabama head coach is the one giving his opinion about the College Football Playoff selections.
And the current ESPN analyst had a lot to say about SMU getting in over Alabama, which was what a lot of fans and media were talking (screaming) about in the aftermath of Sunday’s Playoff selections.
“My point earlier was that if SMU was (ranked) 8 and they played in the conference championship game and they lost by 3 points, they shouldn’t be penalized by that necessarily. But my question about all the strength of schedule … that should have been taken into consideration before they even played in the conference championship game, a’ight?” Saban explained. “So maybe they’re ranked 12th and if they win the game they get in, if they lose the game, Clemson gets in.
“But it wasn’t that way, so now it looks like they have to get penalized. But if it was done based on strength of schedule to start with, that wouldn’t have been the case. I really think that playing in (the SEC) — and I played in this conference for over 20 years — when you play Tennessee and then you have to go play LSU, then that team that you play next, you may be more vulnerable to … and it’s very, very difficult.”
Saban didn’t stop there.
“To not take into consideration when you don’t beat 1 Top 25 team … Indiana didn’t do that, SMU didn’t do that — it makes a huge difference,” he said. “I mean, the Pittsburgh Steelers got beat by the Cleveland Browns. We don’t sit around and say that should knock them out of the playoffs, they can still play their way into the playoffs by beating other good teams. That’s my point, it’s the only one I’ve got. Y’all can go with it.”
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
