Alabama AD Facing Intense Backlash for What He Said After Missing CFP

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Matt De Lima | Last updated Dec 8, 2024 5:39 PM ET

Greg Byrne, the University of Alabama's athletic director, received backlash on the internet after a misleading social media post. He outlined what he believed was the Crimson Tide's case to make the College Football Playoff, highlighting how the school needed to assess the difficulty of its non-conference schedule as its strength of schedule seemed to not reflect well in the CFP.

The users of X hit Byrne with a community note to correct the record.

"All of Alabama's losses came in conference play. Alabama's non-conference schedule was one of the easiest in the country, playing two Group of 5 schools, WKU and USF, one FCS school and one Power 4 team, the 5-7 Wisconsin Badgers, who finished 12th in the Big Ten."

Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country. We had an extremely challenging schedule and recognize there were two games in particular that we did not perform as well as we should have.

We have said that we would need to see how…
— Greg Byrne (@Greg_Byrne) December 8, 2024

Pointing out the difficulty, or lack thereof, of Alabama's non-conference schedule didn't make sense in this context. The Crimson Tide's four non-conference opponents were Western Kentucky, South Florida, Wisconsin and Mercer.

One fan laid down the law against Byrne.

"You went undefeated against the non-conference opponents you scheduled

Don’t lose by 21 points to a bad Oklahoma team or lose to Vanderbilt for the first time in 2 generations and this doesn’t happen"

Another fan was straight to the point.

" win your games "

And this well-crafted post sums it up best.

"You lost to mid teams in your own conference and played W Kentucky, South Florida, and Mercer (FCS). It is very good for college football that Alabama was judged on its record rather than its reputation."

Byrne has been Alabama's athletic director since 2017, after serving as AD at Arizona (2010-2017) and Mississippi State (2008-2010). He was also assistant AD at Oregon, Oregon State and Kentucky. One of Byrne's first notable actions as AD was to make Nick Saban the highest-paid coach in college football history.

The Alabama Crimson Tide will play Michigan in the 2024 ReliaQuest Bowl.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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