Alabama was desperate. Alabama was bold. Alabama was so desperate and bold that it turned Nick Saban into a Saturday night lobbyist and sent him to media rounds to educate America about why its Crimson Tide deserves to be in the college football playoffs.
Have you ever seen a GOAT Grovel live on TV? It was a bit jarring to watch.
“If we played one of these teams that’s about to get in, would we be the underdog or the favorite?” Saban asked Fox at halftime of the Big Ten championship game — a provocative pulpit to give an SEC coach, which sounded like a shot at Ohio State, among other things. “You show vulnerability when you get hit badly at the end of the season. We played better at the end of the season.”
Make no mistake, two-loss Tide doesn’t deserve to be in the playoffs, no matter what the legendary visiting professor says. Neither will they, unless the selection committee has a collective nervous breakdown on Sunday morning. If the committee abandons all previous protocols and picks teams based on Las Vegas point spreads and tradition, Bama has a shot.
This isn’t a difficult decision, no matter how hard some have tried to convert it into one for ratings and web traffic purposes and conference bragging rights.
Of the previous eight iterations of the CFP, Alabama was absent only once.
Marvin Gentry/USA TODAY Sports; Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
The four playoff teams were in all likelihood settled by Saturday afternoon when Max Duggan pulled TCU into overtime in the Big 12 championship game. That narrow loss to a top-10 Kansas State team should be enough to put the Horned Frogs in the group. Georgia and Michigan were already locks regardless of the outcome in the SEC and Big Ten games, respectively. USC was outside after being trampled on Friday night and opening the back door for the Luckeyes to sneak inside.
The only two teams Saban plays politically against are Ohio State and TCU. He has no case against either of them.
Ohio State has a better record than Alabama, 11-1 vs. 10-2. It has better wins (No. 8 Penn State and No. 21 Notre Dame) than the Crimson Tide (No. 20 Texas and No. 24 Mississippi State). While the Buckeyes’ lone loss was far worse, it came against No. 2 Michigan. Alabama’s coveted close losses to LSU and Tennessee were reduced as those teams suffered subsequent losses.
TCU also has a better record than Alabama — more wins (12-10), fewer losses (one-two), more games (13-12). Like the Tide’s two losses, the Horned Frogs’ only loss came in the last game. It was against a top-10 team and evened its record 1-1 against K-State that season. The two also share a common opponent in Texas that TCU found easier to take down — the Frogs defeated the Longhorns 17-10 and controlled most of the game, while Alabama defeated Texas with a point win with 10 seconds remaining.
So it’s time for the playoffs to break their Alabama addiction. The Tide has featured in seven of the last eight iterations, but the backstory and blue-blooded status doesn’t automatically make this flawed bunch a CFP team. Don’t be fooled by knockoffs in familiar uniforms. Or Saban rhetoric. (One of his arguments was that his team is playing better at the end of the season, which apparently means beating Austin Peay and the worst Auburn team in a decade is worth considering?)
And don’t just mindlessly buy the premise that a 4th-seeded Alabama would give Georgia a good game in a semifinal. The Bulldogs absolutely handled both teams that defeated Bama, one by two touchdowns and the other by 20 points, and neither of those games was as close as the final score.
There simply isn’t a team capable of challenging the Bulldogs as No. 4. As expected, Georgia came out of his late-season offensive shell in the SEC title game against LSU, letting quarterback Stetson Bennett cook, throwing for 274 yards and four touchdowns while completing 23 of 29 attempts. When Georgia is able to complement its defense with a balanced offense and quality special teams, everyone struggles.
Michigan looks hard to beat in the other semifinal – although a rematch against Ohio State would get pulses racing and ratings skyrocketing. When college sports are lucky enough to win Duke-North Carolina in one Final Four and Ohio State-Michigan in another in the same calendar year, that’s a whole lot of rivalry appeal. But the football game might not be nearly as competitive as the suspenseful thriller the Tobacco Road titans played back in April. The things the Wolverines did to the Buckeyes in Columbus in the second half are hard to fix in a month.
And even with Blake Corum taking center stage and out for the rest of the season, the Wolverines have their next star in that position in Donovan Edwards. Against Ohio State last week and Purdue on Saturday night, Edwards rushed for 401 total yards and three touchdowns. Michigan’s offense is at its peak and the defense is relentlessly reliable.
Those are two top notch headliners for this year’s playoffs. TCU and Ohio State come with losses and excuses, but no apologies. They’re a better choice than a anything but classic Alabama team trying to get involved in name recognition and Saban lobbying efforts.
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