Enough Already? Nick Saban Sounds Off On CFP Committee's Reasoning For Alabama Missing Playoffs Last Season

Nick Saban is at it again, talking about the parity in college football. This time, he's asking the question on why his Alabama team wasn't in the 2023 College Football Playoff with two losses if the Tide were the betting favorite against three of four teams.

The final weekend of the 2022 college football season brought just enough noise to make folks think about putting Alabama into the playoffs. TCU lost its first game of the season to Kansas State in the Big 12 title game, while USC couldn't handle Utah in the Pac-12 championship. All of this led to the committee having to make the choice of putting TCU into the playoffs over Alabama.

Nick Saban does have a point when discussing the losses last season. Alabama's two losses came down to the final play, with Tennessee and LSU both prevailing at home. Would Alabama have beaten TCU in a matchup? Probably, but that wasn't the question last season. TCU did enough in the Big 12 to gain that final spot in the playoffs, with the Tide not playing in its conference title game.

Alabama head football coach, Nick Saban chats with Jim Furyk and his caddie, Mike Fluff Cowan, at the NCR Pro-Am prior to the PGA TOUR Champions Regions Tradition at Greystone Golf and Country Club on May 11, 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama. (Photo by Tracy Wilcox/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)

The extra game mattered to the committee. But Nick Saban can't let it go.

“So, all we do is take the teams that win the most games at the end of the year, put them in the playoffs. But do you really get the best teams?" Nick Saban mentioned to Joel Klatt. "When they told me that we would be favored against three out of the four teams that got in the playoff, I’m like, why aren’t we in the playoffs?”

Saban does have a point, though the playoff committee is not worried about what Vegas thinks. The question becomes more transparent. Would Alabama have beaten TCU, Michigan, Georgia or Ohio State?

Did The Committee Get It Right In Regards To Alabama?

I think the Buckeyes, Wolverines and Bulldogs would've been a big problem for the Crimson Tide in the postseason, while they most likely would've pounced on the Horned Frogs. But it came down to the committee, which Saban somewhat questioned if they knew what they were doing, in true Nick form.

“Does that mean they have a better team?” Saban said. “Or does it mean that those people don’t know what they’re talking about? I really don’t know that. But I’m not being critical of anybody. But if you’re going to have parity, you have to have a better way of figuring out who has the best teams, not just because you lose two games on the last play of the game."

But ultimately, the way in which Alabama lost those two games compared to how and when TCU lost the Big 12 title game comes down to circumstances.

"That knocks you out when you may be better than somebody else who didn’t have the same circumstances that they had played," Saban noted.

Even with Ohio State getting throttled by Michigan in the final regular season game, they were still put into the playoffs. But the decision for Alabama to get in was more centered towards the résumé of TCU, which obviously worked out in the Horned Frogs favor.

If you think Nick Saban is complaining about how the 2022 season ended for Alabama, think again. This is 'The Godfather' of college football making sure the same outcome doesn't happen in 2023, if Alabama is on the brink again.