Nick Saban and Alabama Are Getting What They Deserve With College Football Playoff Spot in Question

The latest and greatest college football dynasty is not yet over, and we're not here to declare their death or pick out a tombstone. However, Alabama's College Football Playoff hopes in 2019 do depend entirely on actions they do not control, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

This year's edition of the Crimson Tide is as talented as usual, with a dominant offense and a defense that -- despite some obvious holes -- can impose themselves physically on teams that don't possess the same caliber of athlete as Nick Saban so often recruits to Tuscaloosa. Conveniently enough, their schedule gifts them the opportunity to mask those holes week in and week out.

I knew #Alabama football had played a poor schedule, but I should have done the math earlier. The Tide's eight victims have a combined record of 31-45. No one has fewer than three losses. They aren't close to qualified for the #CollegeFootballPlayoff https://t.co/sVmaHTZCO0
— Michael DeCourcy (@tsnmike) November 13, 2019

Alabama's combined opponents' record (in games they've won) is just 31-45, and that includes five victories in the vaunted SEC, the so-called best conference in all of college football.

Yet, every season must be taken as an independent study, and this year's SEC does not match up to years of old, when "it just means more" rang true and the south could claim the deepest conference in college football. That is no more. Outside of LSU, Georgia, Auburn and Florida, the SEC is top-heavy, with an overwhelming number of teams in the conference in danger of missing out on a bowl game.

Alabama's schedule, meanwhile, features just LSU and Auburn as truly tough opponents, and they've already lost one of those.

The CFB Playoff Committee has all their cronies on TV all day preparing everyone for Alabama privilege tonight. There’s no doubt they’ll drop only 1 or 2 spots. Committee will claim “eye test” and forget their non Conference schedule. An embarrassment! I dropped em’ 5 spots.
— Tim Brando (@TimBrando) November 12, 2019

The Crimson Tide's out-of-conference slate is an absolute embarrassment. After opening against Duke, Saban's team faced New Mexico State and Southern Miss, and will play Western Carolina on Nov. 23. Exactly a quarter of Alabama's schedule is against teams far removed from any major conference, and programs which shamefully took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Crimson Tide for the chance to get shellacked by over 50 points in front of a national audience. What's not to love?

Here's a friendly reminder: There are 13 people making this decision, which means it can go ANY direction. Alabama had zero schedule before today and it was No. 3. It still has zero schedule. What we don't know is how important conference title games are to this group.
— Heather Dinich (@CFBHeather) November 10, 2019

To make the College Football Playoff, Alabama may have to depend on LSU -- still the only team to defeat them -- to take down the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game, assuming Kirby Smart's squad wins the SEC East.

It's the perfect punishment for the crime of trying to rig the system.