After the final College Football Playoff rankings had SMU and Indiana making the CFP over SEC teams like Alabama and Ole Miss, who had tougher schedules, a new idea is being promulgated by SEC fans that teams should simply cancel any tough nonconference games.
The idea began to circulate among the Alabama media, who suggested that the Tide should cancel future home-and-homes against Ohio State and Notre Dame. The argument is that the committee essentially set the precedent that eleven wins makes a team a ‘playoff team,’ no matter what their schedule looked like. Thus, teams should simply remove as many difficult games from their schedule as possible to give them the best chance at 11 wins, even if it means paying four FCS schools to play them each year.
The irony, of course, is that Alabama’s nonconference schedule was not the reason they were left out of the CFP. Bama earned a road win over the Wisconsin Badgers, and also hammered one of the top G5 (Western Kentucky) and one of the best FCS schools (Mercer). Bama played a relatively difficult nonconference schedule and dominated it, which played a big role in the committee even considering the Crimson Tide for an at-large bid after their third loss.
Had Alabama’s four nonconference wins come against four bottom-feeding FCS schools, they likely would not have even been considered for an at-large spot as a three-loss team. Yet their Athletic Director Greg Byrne took to X to claim that Alabama will be “reevaluating” their future non-conference opponents.
If teams do take this approach and cancel any difficult nonconference games, it will make the first four weeks of college football extremely boring, and would be bad for the sport. Nobody wants to watch Alabama, Texas, Oregon, Penn State, etc.. beating up on the worst FCS schools for four weeks in a row. Big games are what makes the sport interesting, and in the early season, major nonconference games are the only games that get good TV ratings.
If Alabama cancels its games with Notre Dame, for example, what does that say about the mighty Crimson Tide? Is the once mighty, unstoppable Alabama suddenly afraid to play a good Notre Dame team? Is Alabama scared to play Ohio State? The truth is, if Alabama were to lose a week two game against Ohio State or Notre Dame, they could still easily make the playoffs by simply not losing three conference games. The SEC is tough, but historically Alabama had been able to dominate it. 2024 was the first time since 2010 that Alabama has lost three conference games.
In fact, under the current CFP system, schools can afford to lose as many nonconference games as they want and as long as they win their own conference, they will make the playoffs. The reality is scheduling difficult nonconference games is a low-risk, high-reward outcome, because getting a strong out-of-conference win can only help a team’s resume, but a loss against a good out-of-conference team will not hurt much, as long as they take care of business in their own conference.
Take SMU for example. The Mustangs played one of the stronger out-of-conference schedules this year, including a game against BYU. SMU lost by three to BYU, but were not knocked for it when it came to the playoffs. Why? Because SMU dominated the ACC, made the ACC championship game and their only other loss was to a very good BYU team. The difference between SMU and Alabama had nothing to do with non-conference schedules and everything to do with the fact that Alabama lost three regular-season conference games (two against unranked teams) while SMU lost zero regular-season conference games.
Another example is Georgia, whose narrow, eight-overtime win over Georgia Tech would not have mattered. Georgia won the SEC and even if they had lost to Georgia Tech, they would still have won the SEC. There would have been virtually no downside had Georgia lost to Georgia Tech, but with the win, they can add to their strength of record with a win over an 8-4 ACC rival. Not only does it boost their resume, but playing competitive non-conference games will prepare teams better for the gauntlet of a 12-team, four-round playoff structure.
The bottom line? If you are serious about being a national championship contender, bet on yourself with a tough out-of-conference schedule and take care of business by at least reaching your conference title game. That way, even if you do drop a difficult non-conference game, you will not be left out because of it.
So perhaps the real lesson here is Alabama no longer views itself as a serious contender for the national championship now that Nick Saban is retired.
Let’s look ahead to the WSU Cougars schedule. The Cougs have future home-and-homes with both Kansas and Kansas State in the next seven years. They also have a road game at Ole Miss next year and have agreed to a home-and-home Apple Cup series with Washington for the next two years.
Should WSU keep those games on the schedule? Absolutely. WSU needs strong out-of-conference wins to prove themselves as a Power-5 team. The new Pac-12 will face an uphill battle in gaining the respect of the rest of the college football landscape and the Cougs need to win as many non-conference games as they can. Of course, going 11-1 is fun, but if WSU in 2026 were to go 2-2 in difficult non-conference games and 7-1 against the Pac-12, they would still wind up in the Pac-12 championship game playing for a shot at the CFP.
Non-conference games are good for the sport and should not be canceled because teams are too scared to play them. If anything, for true contenders they are “low-risk, high-reward,” games, and for smaller schools, they are great for exposure and revenue.
