Alabama is out of the first ever twelve team playoffs. And its Bowl destination is a painful reminder of a 2017 loss
The Crimson Tide bumped from a chance to play for the title, to the New Year’s Eve ReliaQuest Bowl where the team will play Michigan at Raymond James Stadium Tampa. The game is a rematch of the 2024 Rose Bowl where Alabama lost to the Wolverines twenty to twenty seven. The loss raised eyebrows among sportswriters since that year was the traditional “third year” where retired coach Nick Saban often won the national title. The man known as the winningest coach in college football” announced his retirement shortly thereafter.
Raymond James Stadiumis also notable since that’s where the Tide lost to Clemson, and it was the Tiger's performance over the weekend that boosted Alabama out of contention for the national title. Clemson defeated the Tide for the CFP title at Raymond James Stadium in 2017. The Tiger's Saturday win for the ACC was bad news for Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer.
Number seventeen ranked Clemson’s upset win over number eight Southern Methodist in the Atlantic Coastal Conference championship game left sportswriters scrambling. The drama began — and ended — when the Tigers blew a three-touchdown lead Saturday night, then got a 56-yard field goal to win with no time left, nosing its way into the 12-team playoff with a 34-31 victory over the SMU Mustangs.
That game, for the Atlantic Coast Conference title, killed off any small chance of a placid, predictable Selection Sunday.
It presented the committee with a choice it was hoping it wouldn't have to make: Take the three loss Crimson Tide and the Southeastern Conference resume. Or take SMU, which has only two losses and showed so much heart in the comeback against Clemson that even the opposing coach was lobbying for the Mustangs.
"That's a playoff football team," said Clemson's Dabo Sweeney, who is going to the playoffs for the seventh time himself. "SMU, they better be in the dang playoffs. What a comeback by those guys."
SMU coach Rhett Lashley wasn't arguing.
"It doesn't matter what I say, but it would be incredibly wrong" if SMU were left out, he said. "I think it would be unprecedented. It would set a really bad precedent. It would break all the principles of what we've been told."
The committee's most scrutinized decision would dictate whether the SEC puts three or four teams into this year's tournament, and whether the ACC gets one or two. The panel chose SMU over Alabama. Critics, like former Tide Coach Nick Saban are pointing to a possible embarrassment for the committee akin to the 2022 championship match up between Georgia and the highly touted Texas Christian University. The Bulldogs routed the Horned Frogs 65 to 7 and raised questions on whether TCU should have been there.
For its part, undefeated Oregon pulled off the expected and grabbed the top spot in the College Football Playoff. Underdog Clemson pulled off an upset and stole one of the last ones. In between, Georgia's quarterback got hurt, and the selection committee settled in to create a first-of-its-kind 12-team bracket that promised only one sure thing — a 100% chance of enraging at least some slice of the college football fanbase.
There won't be any second guessing about giving Georgia a first-round bye after its 22-19 overtime victory over number two Texas in the SEC championship game. But to say the Bulldogs are one of the four best teams in the country right now might be stretching it. They got outgained by more than 100 yards by the Longhorns; they have two losses; they also have a big question mark at quarterback after Carson Beck left the game with an injured hand.
