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The CFP Selection Committee made the right call in leaving Alabama out of the 12-team playoff tournament, plain and simple.

The Crimson Tide lost to a mediocre Vanderbilt team in a shootout (the Commodores finished the year 6-6) and got embarrassed on the road by Oklahoma (who also finished 6-6). Throw in another loss to Tennessee, and Alabama’s resume included three losses and a relatively unimpressive body of work. For some reason, the Tide held a playoff spot in the penultimate rankings, but thankfully, they will not be playing for a national championship this year.

However, Saban took issue with that in an interview with ESPN after the rankings were released.

“If we don’t take strength of schedule into consideration, is there any benefit to scheduling really good teams in the future?” Saban said.

Read: Oregon Ducks Head Coach Dan Lanning Takes Shot At SEC, ESPN

The argument Saban presents here is that the quality of Alabama’s opponents this year means that it should have gotten the team in over the SMU Mustangs, who claimed the last at-large bid. While Saban is an intelligent man, this is far from a sensible argument.

Alabama’s schedule this year – outside of a game against No. 2 Georgia – was not that impressive. Its non-conference schedule included games against Mercer, South Florida, Western Kentucky, and a bad Wisconsin team. Besides their win over Georgia, they didn’t have many impressive wins against quality opponents on the schedule.

Contrast that with SMU, who was a two-loss conference runner-up that played more consistently than Alabama, and they got the last spot. Was their strength of schedule better? No. But the Mustangs deserved to be in because they looked like the better team and had the better resume.

Read: Social Media Erupts With Anger To Keep Alabama Out Of Playoff

 In that interview, Saban did acknowledge that the Tide controlled their own destiny and failed to do their part – a point that OutKick founder Clay Travis also observed in the most spot-on fashion possible.

The committee didn’t let their SEC bias get in the way of their decision this year, and the playoff is better for it. Saban will have to find a way to cope with that harsh reality.