Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban expressed his dissatisfaction with the Crimson Tide not making the 2024 College Football Playoffs. To make his point, the Pittsburgh Steelers had to catch some strays in the process. Pointing out the need to add more weight to Alabama’s difficult schedule and downplaying tough losses to teams like Oklahoma and Vanderbilt, Saban invoked the Steelers along the way.
“I mean, the Pittsburgh Steelers got beat by the Cleveland Browns,” Saban said during ESPN’s Sunday selection show. “We don’t sit around and say, ‘That should knock them out of the playoffs. They still can play their way into the playoffs by beating other good teams.’ That’s my point.”
Saban, of course, is also a former Cleveland Browns coach, serving as the team’s defensive coordinator throughout the early-to-mid 1990s. He’s referencing Pittsburgh’s 24-19 Week 12 upset loss to Cleveland on a short week in the snow. The type of game the Steelers seemingly have at least once per season, they bounced back with a win over the Cincinnati Bengals the following week and victory over the Browns in Sunday’s rematch.
Ultimately, the college football playoff committee chose to put SMU in over Alabama despite the Crimson Tide playing in the rough-and-tumble SEC and having more quality wins than the Mustangs. SMU’s resume may have been dinged by losing to Clemson in the ACC Championship Game, but the committee appeared to have the stance that making a conference title game, even if losing it, shouldn’t knock a team out of contention.
Saban’s point is that one loss shouldn’t dictate a team’s fortunes. But comparing the NFL and NCAA playoff systems is apples and oranges. The NFL is a non-subjective, mathematical approach with no voting process to choose the 14 playoff squads. The NCAA is subjective, a panel determining seedings, matchups, and last-teams in.
Clearly, Saban isn’t happy with how the selection process played out. But at the end of the day, it’ll be the Steelers, not the Crimson Tide, in the playoffs.
