Kalen DeBoer fires back at College Football Playoff committee over Alabama snub

While looking back on Alabama’s absence from the College Football Playoff a year ago, Kalen DeBoer fired back at the committee. He specifically pointed out the Crimson Tide’s strength of schedule when asked about the snub.

Alabama went 9-3 during the regular season last year, with all three losses coming in conference play to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma. On the whole, its schedule ranked No. 20 in the country, according to ESPN’s FPI.

However, the Crimson Tide wound up on the outside looking in of the first-ever 12-team CFP bracket, coming in as the No. 11-ranked team behind SMU. But as part of the seeding process which had spots for the five highest-ranked conference champions, Alabama was the first team out as Clemson jumped up.

Alabama's Kalen DeBoer on being left out of last year's College Football Playoff: "You wonder what would have happened if other people would have played our schedule"

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) May 27, 2025

“You wonder what would have happened if other people would have played our schedule,” DeBoer said at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, according to The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy.

At the time, CFP selection committee chairman Warde Manuel cited the key factors in play regarding SMU and Alabama’s spots. He pointed out the Mustangs’ losses came to ranked teams while the Crimson Tide suffered unranked losses, which ultimately made the difference as SMU made the bracket despite falling in the ACC Championship.

Still, the debate continued about whether Alabama should have been in the field. In fact, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey also pointed out how the committee evaluates strength of schedule and the questions for the committee in the first year of the new format.

“I don’t know that I’d say surprised. I think that’s one of the realities,” Sankey said. “But I spoke in July at media days, asking how will a 9-3 team, and I used Georgia as a really good example given their three really difficult road games, how do you evaluate that against other teams that don’t come anywhere close to that?

“And as I said, we learned something the first time through (the 12-team playoff selection process). And that raises the need for deeper analysis and understanding. If we’re gonna just incentivize wins, playing fewer winning teams can get your to more wins. I don’t think that’s great for the football.”

For the 2024-25 season, the College Football Playoff bracket included the five highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large teams. The four highest-ranked conference champions received byes. Things are about to change this year, though, with a straight-seeding model. The field will be seeded based on rankings, and the five highest-ranked conference champions will still make the cut.