News Article: Alabama AD Greg Byrne to reassess scheduling after Tide CFP snub

[BamaNation]

Pat Adams says "hey, what about me?"

Eric Gregg is waving down from heaven saying "me too me too me too!" ... He and Angel Hernandez are charter members in the World's Worst HOF

 

[Crimson Speed]

Sadly enough, as long as there’s a committee and auto-bye involved they’ll just keep moving the goalposts to fit their preferences. Just stay the course and win the games your supposed too.

Yes, for the 2024 season, our solution was to win games. However, with things are the way they are now, it will be a challenge for the SEC to get 4 teams in the playoff because that would be a third of those selected. I believe that was a factor that played a large part in who they selected. The SEC has created a monster conference and shot itself in the foot with the conference teams destroying each other.

 

[Crimson Speed]

All i know is I am going to laugh very loud if Tejas, UGA and SMU all go out first round........and it could happen

I expect Clemson and SMU to be eliminated in the first round.

 

[Evil Crimson Dragon]

I expect Clemson and SMU to be eliminated in the first round.

I do as well............

 

[SkullDuckery]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1865903781751455964

 

[Bpilktree]

Honestly the team that could have got hurt the worse by playing top level non conference games if they didn’t win last night was Clemson. They were 9-3 with a loss to Georgia in the kickoff classic and then South Carolina to finish the season. Based on SMU getting in if they would have just scheduled someone like Mississippi State and East Carolina they are sitting at 11-1 exactly like SMU and most likely in the playoff even if they lost last night. Another team not talked about much is BYU. They finished with the exact same record as SMU and they beat them head to head. Now they definitely got some serious luck to get to that record but if you really compare resumes they are similar and BYU has the head to head. They just lost tie breaker to not get a chance to play for conference championship in Big 12.

 

[CrimsonNagus]

Losing to two six-loss teams in Vandy and Oklahoma did Alabama in. The non-conference games had nothing to do with it. SEC teams only playing eight conference games when other conferences play nine looks bad as well.

Why would the SEC go to 9 games after this debacle?

The committee just told everyone the SOS doesn’t matter, only the number in the loss column matters. Shoot, I say drop to a 5 game conference schedule and fill the rest with the cupcakes from the ACC that SMU played and skate into the playoffs every year.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

I understand he’s upset. But there’s only so much Byrne (or any SEC AD) can do about scheduling easy wins.

You play 8 SEC games, and have little to no control over who your conference opponents are. Non-Conference, we played USF, Wisconsin, Western Kentucky and Mercer.

Three lesser programs and a B1G non-conference opponent. I’m not sure trading Wisconsin for, say, UT-Chattanooga would make a big difference in record.

The only way to fix this is for the committee to value what it says it values — SOS and SOR, leavened by actual Ws and Ls.

The main issue this year was that SMU was over-rated at #8. Nobody in their right mind would call them the 8th best team in the country. The committee got blinded by Ws and Ls, and didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings by valuing a curb-stomping win over LSU on the road more than a one-point win over Duke on the road.

They painted themselves into a corner by (1) ignoring SMU’s SOS and SOR early on in the rankings, thereby over-ranking them in the final weekend going into the conference championship games, and (2) saying that a team won’t be unduly penalized for playing in a CCG and losing.

Still, we could have avoided all this by taking care of business in either Nashville or Norman. We didn’t, and now suffer the consequences of putting the decision into the hands of people who have never played or coached the game.

 

[PA Tide Fan]

Future home and home's are scheduled with Florida State 2025-26, Ohio State 2027-28 and Notre Dame 2029-30. Might be too late to do anything about FSU, although they still may be bad the next 2 seasons so maybe that doesn't matter so much. Definitely need to think about cancelling the OSU and ND home and home's unless the CFP committee changes their criteria for selecting teams.

 

[bvandegraff]

Can the 2025 SEC schedule be reviewed I wonder, or is that set in stone? I would imagine the ship has sailed on the 2025 schedule, but if not, then that should be looked at.

Should be reviewed for how bye weeks are structured. Bama played at least 3 SEC teams coming off of byes and lost to 2 of them.

 

[M2J]

I understand he’s upset. But there’s only so much Byrne (or any SEC AD) can do about scheduling easy wins.

You play 8 SEC games, and have little to no control over who your conference opponents are. Non-Conference, we played USF, Wisconsin, Western Kentucky and Mercer.

Three lesser programs and a B1G non-conference opponent. I’m not sure trading Wisconsin for, say, UT-Chattanooga would make a big difference in record.

The only way to fix this is for the committee to value what it says it values — SOS and SOR, leavened by actual Ws and Ls.

The main issue this year was that SMU was over-rated at #8. Nobody in their right mind would call them the 8th best team in the country. The committee got blinded by Ws and Ls, and didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings by valuing a curb-stomping win over LSU on the road more than a one-point win over Duke on the road.

They painted themselves into a corner by (1) ignoring SMU’s SOS and SOR, thereby over-ranking them going into the conference championship games, and (2) saying that a team won’t be unduly penalized for playing in a CCG and losing.

And we could have avoided all this by taking care of business in either Nashville or Norman. We didn’t, and now suffer the consequences of putting the decision into the hands of people who have never played or coached the game.

Future home and home's are scheduled with Florida State 2025-26, Ohio State 2027-28 and Notre Dame 2029-30. Might be too late to do anything about FSU, although they still may be bad the next 2 seasons so maybe that doesn't matter so much. Definitely need to think about cancelling the OSU and ND home and home's unless the CFP committee changes their criteria for selecting teams.

Whether FSU or Wisconsin next year is good or not schedule wise.... FSU has major players and that's going to be an emotional and physical game that may require the team to go deeper into the game than they may to do vs a WKU, Mid major type school. They travel to FSU and welcome Wisconsin. A 3 or 4 qtr game could lead to injury and fatigue.

They'll get 3 ranked teams at the least in the conference play or be fortunate and play 1 if you're Texas, but still hone your skills in 5 or so other tough conference games like A&M. Get essentially Mercer style bye weeks for OOC.

I also believe that if a team does try to schedule tough OOC once in a while... The conference should take note with their plans for the in conference play scheduling.

It's not about having weaker schedules compared to other conferences or teams.... The SEC play will not allow that most years. But they need to dilute this and level the playing field with the big 10 at least. Even when I see the SOS rankings... Clearly they'll adjust by just playing each other to still be in the top 30 range no matter what.... Oregon like 34th and they had a game schedule including Boise

 

[TexasTider]

And considering the media rights for both conferences (SEC and ACC) are held by ESPN, it would just come down to cash.

Yup - just some guys and girls sitting down in a smoky room and rearranging the chess pieces. ESPN will still pay out the same amount of money. They might even tell the ACC they'll give them more money for basketball since they are "the" basketball conference, right.. ignoring recent results.

 

[Cruloc]

None of this matters as long as subjectivity is allowed.

There needs to he specific data points, weighted appropriately and calculated.

Polls are subjective....it's ridiculous. If info can be leaked out imagine the handshakes and promises that can creep in.

Take the inclusion out....make this more calculated.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

I still think the BCS had the right formula -- some computers, some human input. Computers provided the objectivity; humans provided the eye test.

Just take the Top 12 teams according to the old BCS formula, seed them accordingly, and tee it up.

 

[BamaMoon]

Losing to two six-loss teams in Vandy and Oklahoma did Alabama in. The non-conference games had nothing to do with it. SEC teams only playing eight conference games when other conferences play nine looks bad as well.

I understand what you saying, but you don't always lose a game the week you play it. You can lose a game the week after you play a difficult game because you spent so much time prepping for another game. We lost to Vandy the week after we played Georgia. We spend a ton of energy on USCocks and the week after we lost to UT@Neyland.

The outlier and the one that did us in was losing to OU. But it was the perfect storm for OU who had "one game to hand their hat on" to make their season after such a disappointing season.

All of this is "within" the SEC, but why waste time to prepare for Wisky this year OR future games against West Va., Ohio State, OK. St, etc.

If there's no reward to risking losses in these game AND if they can be replaced with cupcakes it gives us more time to prepare for the SEC grind that got even harder with UT and OU.

 

[BamaMoon]

I haven't kept up with this thread so I'm just offering some unvarnished thoughts.

But, concerning the SEC "grind" we are now suffering from the Bama effect on the conference. For years we beat down about half the conference to the point they had no chance. But everybody got tired of losing and suddenly now you've got teams like South Carolina and Vandy and Kentucky they are tough outs!

It used to be pretty simple in SEC scheduling. There was a clear upper echelon of schools and then the bottom half that you almost could count as an automatic win. That doesn't exist right now.

 

[Power Eye]

Should be reviewed for how bye weeks are structured. Bama played at least 3 SEC teams coming off of byes and lost to 2 of them.

We played 4 teams that came off bye weeks (UGA, Vandy, LSU, Oklahoma). We won the two games where we had bye weeks as well and lost the two where we didn't. I realize that it's impossible to match it up, but 4 games against conference teams coming off byes is a lot when there are only two bye weeks. I'm not going to make an excuse out of that, but it should be more equitable.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

There is no reason to play a tough OOC schedule. Zero.

 

[Snuffy Smith]

Do away with automatic qualifiers & committee. Go back to BCS formula.

 

[CB4]

Saw a comment on X where some pinhead was questioning our “weak” OOC schedule. I just chuckled. We play a murders’ row in conference plus scheduled Wisconsin and USF prior to the recent lulls. And SMU runs a gauntlet that includes Nevada and Houston Christian?

And Curt Cignetti whining because they didn’t get a home game? Played one team with pulse and lost by three scores.

This is not just a Byrne and Alabama issue. This is a Sankey and SEC issue.