Looks brutal but now the pundits can stop whining about us not playing 9 conference games and playing Chattanooga in November.
There will always be a manufactured whine - because you can ALWAYS name a team that somebody didn't face. Nobody EVER complains that Alabama has never faced Oregon State, Virginia, Purdue, Stanford, or Iowa. Just like nobody ever complains when Oregon State plays Fresno State - but it's a high crime for Alabama.
Learn this: they will ALWAYS cry about some team Alabama didn't face. We could play all 130 (or whatever it is now) FBS teams without a bye week over the next 2.5 years, go 130-0......and they'd whine we were "scared" to play North Dakota State.
BEST EXAMPLE IS 2017
This by far is the best example of what I'm talking about. When we opened the season against FSU, it was being touted as a possible preview of a playoff rematch. We beat them. And at the end of their really bad season, we got zero credit for beating them and instead were subject to "Alabama should have to play UCF for the national championship."
But guess what would have happened if we'd played UCF?
"Alabama is just scared to play Florida State."
Pardon the pun, but the critics of our schedule specialize in moving the goalposts.
Boise State got TONS of positive publicity of the "see, they can play with the big boys" for ONE WIN with five weeks to prepare over an apathetic Oklahoma team.......but when they were 0-for-the-SEC (their all-time record is 1-4 vs the SEC), not one word about the SEC team BEATING THEM. And if you look now, Boise claims they're 1-0 against SEC member Oklahoma, as if the Sooners were in the SEC back in 2006.
Critics will still go with that claim of fear of playing Northern teams on the road in December.
www.si.com
