Saban: Blowouts late in season should be CFP factor

Nick Saban is hitting the interview circuit Saturday night as he pleads Alabama’s case for playoff inclusion.

After going on ESPN’s social media show, the Crimson Tide coach went straight to the enemy’s backyard. Saban appeared on the halftime show of the Big Ten championship game on Fox and took a bit of a swipe at one of the league’s contenders.

After repeating some of the talking points from his interview earlier in the night, Saban appeared to reference Ohio State’s argument without naming the Buckeyes.

“I think you show vulnerability when you get beat badly at the end of the season,” Saban said a week after Ohio State took a 45-23 loss to Michigan. “Our team has played better at the end of the season so that’s my reasoning.”

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He was then asked to pick the four teams who should make the field.

“Well, I don’t like to talk about other teams,” Saban said. “But I think there are a lot of good teams out there. I think when we talk about one-loss teams versus two-loss teams, you’re looking just at metrics rather than circumstances that surround the games that were won or lost. I think that has a big impact on who the best teams are. Let’s get the best teams in the game.”

Ohio State is 11-1 with the lone loss coming in the blowout at home against Michigan last weekend.

Saban went on to speak about the level of competition Alabama faced this season. All five of the road games came against teams who were ranked in the top 25 at some point in the season — three were top-10 teams. Alabama lost two of those three.

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In terms of schedule strength, different rankings have different opinions. The Massey Ratings, once part of the BCS formula, has Alabama’s schedule at No. 3 — one spot behind Ohio State but ahead of TCU at No. 6. Another BCS computer ranking, the Colley Matrix, had Alabama’s schedule 31st, Ohio State’s 57th and TCU’s 47th.

“What I would say to the committee or anyone else, if we played any of these teams who are on the edge of getting in, would we be the underdog?” he said. “Or would we be the favorite? I think if we could answer that question and the goal is to get the best teams in there, I’d say they belong in there.”

The CFP committee’s final rankings and playoff field will be set just after 11 a.m. CT Sunday. The bracket will be revealed on ESPN.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.

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