‘Not all schedules and conferences are created equal’: Greg Byrne makes Alabama’s football CFP pitch

With no more games to be played until the final round of the College Football Playoff is decided, Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne is pushing for Alabama football to be among the final 12 teams.

In a post on Monday evening

“Be aware that there is a lot of talk out there about 2-on-3 losing teams,” Byrne wrote. “However, that is only one factor. When looking at the (CFP) principles for the selection committee, the first item on the list of considerations is the strength of the schedule. Not all schedules and conferences are created equal.”

“We have worked diligently to add more challenging non-conference home-and-home games, which is good for college football, not to mention the SEC, week in and week out, is the toughest in the country.”

Byrne expressed his thoughts with a graphic that shows Alabama has the second-best winning percentage of opponents and the Crimson Tide is the fourth-best team in both the Football Power Index and ESPN’s efficiency ratings.

Byrne also lists Alabama’s three wins against teams currently ranked in the CFP Top 25 and its four wins against teams ranked or receiving votes in the Associated Press Top 25 at the time of the game.

Six of Alabama’s eight wins, Byrne said, came against teams eligible for the bowl season.

According to the latest LBM USA Coaches’ Poll, Alabama is the No. 11 team in the country and would be the No. 11 seed in the CFP, where they would face No. 6 Notre Dame in the first round and No. 3 SMU in the quarterfinals.

The CFP will release a ranking on Tuesday before releasing its final ranking on Sunday at 11 a.m. CT.

Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared in the Tuscaloosa News: University of Alabama AD Greg Byrne makes Alabama’s football CFP pitch