Kalen DeBoer, Greg Byrne: Strength of Schedule 'Wasn't Rewarded' by CFP Committee

No. 11 Alabama discovered on Sunday that its postseason fate will be outside of the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff and will face defending national champion Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

Alabama lost its spot to SMU who fell to Clemson at the last second of the ACC Championship on Saturday night, and the committee mutually agreed that the two-loss Mustangs deserved a spot over the three-loss Crimson Tide.

But one factor that played a role in making the decision a head-scratcher was the strength of schedule as Alabama had more ranked wins than SMU. However, it appeared that the Crimson Tide's losses to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, who were and still are unranked, was Alabama's downfall.

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer assessed the CFP committee's decision on Sunday night and emphasized that the strength of schedule was not utilized enough, despite the committee stating its importance in the guidelines.

"We want to play competitive games, we want to play the best games and I understand how it didn't feel like that. It definitely wasn't rewarded," DeBoer said. "It felt like with our schedule and the wins that we had against teams that were ranked––now or even at the time––LSU was at the time, but not anymore. I'll let [Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne] administratively lead the charge and understand what needs to be done in the future, if anything at all.

"We've got some higher profile games against programs that traditionally have been very successful and we want to be a part of that and we want that to happen. That's the exciting thing about college football is being in as many big games as possible. I don't want to back down to that, we want to be a part of it and that hopefully will be rewarded down the road."

DeBoer referenced Byrne's thoughts, as the Alabama athletic director took X (formerly known as Twitter) on Sunday afternoon to discuss the committee's decision.

"Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country," Byrne wrote. "We had an extremely challenging schedule and recognized there were two games in particular that we did not perform as well as we should have.

"We have said that we would need to see how the strength of schedule would be evaluated by the CFP. With this outcome, we will need to assess how many P4 non-conference games make sense in the future to put us in the best position to participate in the CFP. That is not good for college football.

"With that said, we do not need to hang our heads and now need to finish this season strong. We have a great group of young men who have led us with Coach DeBoer through the last year and we look forward to our opportunity in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Roll Tide."

As DeBoer and Byrne turn the page, the Crimson Tide will begin to prepare for the ReliaQuest Bowl on Tuesday, Dec. 31, Tampa, Fla., at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN.