With the future of Alabama’s college football playoffs in limbo, coach Nick Saban said on Saturday that there was a debate over whether his team should be in the top four, with one question: who will and who won’t. He said he framed the discussion in Current?
Of course, this question serves Alabama’s defense. Last week, the Crimson Tide, who ranked him sixth by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, lost two but finished his season as a regular with three straight wins.
Fifth place Ohio has only one loss. But that loss came in the final weekend of the regular season, his 45-23 loss at home to rival Michigan.
Probably ranked in the top four when No. 4 USC lost to No. 11 Utah in Saturday’s Pac 12 championship game.
The No. 3 TCU suffered its first loss of the season to Kansas State in Saturday’s Big 12 Championship Game.
Appearing on ESPN’s Twitter College Football Show on Saturday, Saban said his team had a strong start to the season but was affected by a quarterback injury. Bryce Young During the Oct. 1 victory in Arkansas.
Young, who injured his throwing shoulder, did not play in the following week’s 24-20 victory over Texas A&M. He came back and Alabama lost with a walk-off field goal at Tennessee.
But Saban said even when Young returned to action, he wasn’t entirely healthy. Saban claimed that it hindered the development of his team.
Three weeks after losing to Tennessee, Alabama made their way to LSU, where they lost in overtime. Alabama bounced back, beating Ole Miss, Austin Pea and Auburn, and he finished the regular season 10-2.
“I think our team played well all the time and are still playing well,” Saban said.
Saban noted that both of Tide’s losses were against teams ranked in the top ten at the time.
“We lost two games on the way to one top five team, one top 10 team on the last play of the game,” he said. [Young is] I think we are different teams. I think we’ll have to look at teams that lost two and teams that lost one and see how they’re playing at the end of the season. how are they playing now? ”
Saban said he wanted to add another angle to the discussion about who will be on board and who will be left behind. He said he should ask if they are playing against another team.
“I guess I’ll ask the question: If we play against the team in question, will we be underdogs in the game?” he said. “It should answer all questions about who the best team is at the moment. That’s how this plays out.”
