Was Alabama disrespected because some people voted for Ohio State to be in the playoffs or felt like they didn’t deserve to be in tonight’s game?
So was No. 4 Alabama disrespected, because some people thought they didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs?
Some of the Alabama players felt disrespected and were adamantly vocal about that feeling after the 24-6 win over No. 1 Clemson in the Sugar Bowl and specifically, cited Clemson football Head Coach Dabo Swinney, not voting for them to be included in the playoffs as extra motivation to beat the Tigers.
“I love all the ammunition that he(Swinney) gave this team………he told us that we weren’t worthy of the top four team,” Tony Brown said in his post game interview.
But Swinney had every right to vote for someone else instead of the Crimson Tide. Their resume didn’t warrant them entry into the playoffs. They only got in because the alternative selections were Ohio State and USC. Ohio State and USC both won their respective conferences but suffered two losses and each a lopsided loss to Iowa(55-24) and Notre Dame(49-14), respectively. So as much as, they hate to hear it, they got in by default.
The biggest argument against their entry into the College Football Playoffs was their schedule. When you go 1-1 in road games versus ranked opponents, have no conference title and the non-conference schedule includes one unranked Power Five opponent, Florida State(neutral site game) and three non-Power 5 opponents, Fresno State, Colorado State and Mercer, then doubts abound. But should anyone be surprised at the non-conference schedule of Alabama. In fact, no one should be, because that scheduling strategy has been in place for 10 years.
In the past ten years, Clemson has scheduled a home-and-home series with Auburn, Georgia, and for the next two seasons, an upcoming series with Texas A&M which begins in College Station(TX) on Sept. 8. With a home-and-home rivalry series already internalized with South Carolina in future schedules, the Tigers will always have a competitive schedule. On the other hand, Alabama has only played one such series since 2008, a 2010-11 series with Penn State. From 2008 to now, Alabama has scheduled four non-conference teams per season, and 2010 is the only year where two schools(Penn State, Duke) were from Power Five conferences. So nine of 10 seasons the Crimson Tide’s schedule has included three non-Power Five conference schools and the Power 5 opponent is met at a neutral site, conversely, Clemson, typically, has two on their schedule and has played at least one of those games on the road for seven seasons. The Tigers also scheduled two SEC teams in eight of the 10 seasons. In 2016, Alabama head coach Nick Saban talked about playing Power 5 conference schools in November.
“Through the years, I’ve been an advocate of playing all Power 5 conference schools, playing more conference games. I know it’s a more difficult schedule but I think it would be better for the fans.”
Saban went on to say that administrators, conference commissioners, athletic directors and college presidents make the scheduling decisions. Here are the future Alabama football schedules from FBSCHEDULES minus an anticipated non Power 5 opponent to be added for 2019.
2018
09/01 – Louisville (at Orlando, FL)
09/08 – Arkansas State
09/29 – UL Lafayette
11/17 – The Citadel
2019
08/31 – Duke (at Atlanta, GA)
09/07 – New Mexico State
09/21 – Southern Miss
If Alabama wins tonight, it will be their fifth national championship since 2009 and the second without a conference championship, because in 2011, LSU won the SEC championship over Alabama 9-6. After winning the title, LSU was then forced to play Alabama again in the BCS National Championship Game by the voters. Alabama won the rematch 21-0. That decision by the voters left an Oklahoma State team on the outside looking in.
Even if Alabama wins tonight, it doesn’t mean that they deserved to be in the playoffs, it only means that they were good enough to take advantage of their opportunity. I bet Oklahoma State(12-1) felt disrespected, especially, since they never got the opportunity that Alabama gets tonight.