Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said Sunday that he will have to rethink his non-conference scheduling philosophy going forward after the Crimson Tide became the first team to be left out of the 12-team College Football Playoff field.

In a post on

However, he also added that scheduling outside of conferences is an area that needs to be evaluated.

“We have said that we need to see how the strength of the schedule is assessed by the CFP,” Byrne wrote. “With this result, we need to assess how many P4 non-conference games make sense in the future to put us in the best position to compete in the CFP. This is not good for college football.”

Alabama played just one non-conference Power 4 game this year – a 42-10 win at Wisconsin. But next year, the Crimson Tide have two non-conference Power 4 games – a season-opening Aug. 30 at Florida State and a Sept. 13 home game against Wisconsin.

“Strength of schedule matters,” Byrne posted on X late Saturday night before the CFP field was announced. “Not all schedules and conferences are the same. Six of our eight wins came against bowl-eligible teams and against some of the top teams in the Sec, including Sec champion Georgia.”

SMU (11-2) defeated Alabama 9-3 to clinch the final spot in the first 12-team playoff. Alabama will now play Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa, Florida on December 31st.

“Brands like Alabama, brands like Clemson — the bluebloods of our sport — they’ve earned this right,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said Sunday. “But that doesn’t mean they should get the nod in situations like this. I was really proud and grateful that that didn’t play a role in the final decision.”

A quick schedule comparison shows that Alabama has a lead over SMU in a few categories – it ranks higher than SMU in record strength (No. 9; SMU was 15th), ESPN’s FPI (fourth; SMU ranked 13th) and top 25 wins (3 for Bama; zero for SMU).

“We appreciate the strength of the schedule,” CFP Select Committee Chairman Warde Manuel said earlier Sunday. “That’s why Alabama is a three-loss team, ahead of other two-loss teams.”

That statement was rebuked on social media by Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who also tagged the Alabama and SMU football accounts in his response.

“Is this fake news???” Kiffin posted on X: “He didn’t actually say that… @AlabamaFTBL @SMUFB”

Is this fake news??? He didn’t actually say that… @AlabamaFTBL @SMUFB https://t.co/APxNx1xXJZ

— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) December 8, 2024

Ole Miss (9-3) finished at No. 14 in the final rankings and felt like it had a good reason to be in the 12-team field.

There was also criticism of the way the teams are seeded. Under the current format, the top four conference champions are seeded in the top four – regardless of where they are ranked by the CFP committee – and automatically receive a first-round bye.

Texas, for example, was ranked No. 3 in the final rankings but is the first overall team to be ranked No. 5 behind conference champions Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State. No. 9 Boise State and No. 12 Arizona State are both behind Texas, but because they are conference champions, they receive a bye in the first round.

Texas hosts 12th-seeded ACC champion Clemson on December 21st.

“I’m just looking at the NCAA basketball tournament,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian told ESPN. “If you win your conference tournament, you will automatically receive a bid to the tournament. But then there is the seeding list. There are 1-seeds, there are 2-seeds – and so on and so forth – and nowhere does it say whether you win.” You automatically get a 1-seed in your conference championship.

“If we can get to that model from a football perspective in the future, teams will be seeded based on their ranking and I’m not even talking about us. But the reality is, if we were just off the rankings, we would be the third seed in this tournament, as opposed to the fifth seed. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but if we go by that model, while there is automatic bidding for the tournament, that doesn’t necessarily give you a 1 seed where you get that bye in the first round.

Before the CFP field was announced Sunday and teams and conferences discussed placement, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said he didn’t believe a Group 5 team should get a bye against a Power 4 champion, and pointed to the strength of the schedule.

However, Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez pushed back on supporting Boise State hours before the bracket was announced.

“Participating in the College Football Playoff is not about entitlement,” Nevarez posted on social media. “It shouldn’t be dependent on a conference patch or the logo on the helmet. … Boise State’s overall performance this season, including an 11-game winning streak, has earned it a spot among the top four seeds ahead of the Big 12 champion.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.