While coach Nick Saban certainly wasn't upset that his Alabama squad leapfrogged Florida State to reach the College Football Playoff, he also understood why FSU would be.
Saban joined ESPN's Selection Sunday coverage once the four CFP teams — Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama — were announced. And he immediately addressed the elephant in the room: his 12-1 team making the playoff instead of an undefeated (and now-infuriated) Florida State team.
When explaining why he couldn't sleep prior to Selection Sunday, Saban said, "There's a lot of good teams out there. Florida State is certainly a good team, and go to undefeated in their league, it's unfortunate that some good team had to get left out."
Which is not to say that Saban disagreed with the decision.
"But I really think that our team earned the right to be here," Saban added. "We beat No. 1 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game."
So Saban isn't too torn up about the CFP Selection Committee's decision. He also does have a fair point, considering that the Bulldogs are back-to-back champs and had won 29 straight games before Saturday's loss to his Alabama team. Not that Florida State has anything to do with that.
Saban also knows that, Georgia win aside, his team still could have been left on the outside looking in. "This is just one of those years where — and there have been other years like this — where somebody that may have been deserving got left out," Saban said Sunday. "Florida State, certainly, going undefeated did everything they could to get into the playoffs. Unfortunately, probably because of the injury to their quarterback, are not going to have that opportunity."
Saban is alluding to Jordan Travis, Florida State's (former) starting quarterback, who suffered a season-ending injury last month. It's this injury that made the CFP Selection Committee pick Alabama instead of Florida State to make the playoff — as CFP committee chair Boo Corrigan explained on ESPN.
"Florida State is a different team than they were the first 11 weeks," Corrigan said. "If you look at who they are as a team right now, without Jordan Travis, without the offensive dynamic that he brings to it, they are a different team."
Regardless of justifications, it's tough to see an undefeated Atlantic Coast Conference championship-winning team miss out on the College Football Playoff. Yet, it also would have been tough to see Saban's Crimson Tide squad not playing on New Year's Day.
With the CFB format as it currently is, someone had to get left out on Sunday. Saban was just glad it wasn't him.
