but media days they're still going strong right ACC in Big 10 media days are this week in Charlotte and Indianapolis respectively there was a comment from USC coach Lincoln Riley that went viral on Wednesday the short version of the clip was Alabama didn't schedule for their fans they scheduled to win championships when it came to Future scheduling challenges and um he brought up specifically or maybe he or somebody else brought up Alabama's scheduling model under Nick Sabin the full quote that I went to go find um as he was talking about you know the decision decision-making process when it comes to scheduling future opponents Bama was ahead of the curve for years I thought on how they scheduled in the non-conference Riley told a handful of reporters he continued they would occasionally hit the Marquee non-conference game they'd play two other very not very good teams they'd play one late so they essentially got a little bit of a bye there in the season they didn't schedule for their fans they scheduled to win championships he went on my hope is that we can do the same thing scheduled to win championships that includes a rivalry game for all that comes with that all that it means but if you get in the positions you've got to make a decision on what the priority is the not scheduling for fans scheduling for championships bid is the what went viral here but Alex you've got some thoughts on this what do you think of Lincoln Riley's thoughts on Alabama scheduling I don't know what he's talking about I I honestly don't know what he's talking about Alabama has played as strong a non-conference schedule over Nick sabin's term as anybody I mean they popularized the big Marquee uh neutral site game I mean you start with the Clemson game early in that 10 year that wasn't an easy game they played all these teams and yeah the scores were lopsided and sometimes you caught a team like a West Virginia or a USC or whoever it was that wasn't exactly at the top of their game Michigan another one um but they scheduled them and they continued to schedule them while we're going to Wisconsin this year it was under Nick Sabin you don't that game doesn't happen without his Blessing so it just doesn't make any sense to me to say that they were strategic about the other non-conference games well who isn't I mean you get teams like look at Michigan's schedule last year what was their non-conference game yeah they all do one decently big one some of them do and they do two smaller ones what you do it pay games um the fact that it falls right before your rivalry game is just the way the cookie crumbles I mean it's just how it happens I don't think Nick started that um it just seemed like an unnecessary thing to say to justify what I think we really wanted to say is I don't want to play these big games anymore if they're not conference games I don't think he does I think this is what I'm worried about and what we kind of touched on the last last last podcast I think teams think with an expanded playoff you can schedule your way in and if you only have one loss they're not going to kick you out so if we if we don't Challenge oursel in a non-conference it's not going to hurt us because if we're the 12 or the 13 or the 14 who cares as long as we're in um my fear is that's what's going on I don't know that for certain but that's that was me reading between the lines on some pretty weak comments I thought some of the non-conference games on Alabama schedule during the sav and 10 year they played Florida State in 07 Clemson in 08 uh Penn State in both 10 and 11 Michigan in 2012 Virginia Tech again in 2013 Wisconsin in 2015 USC in 2016 pretty lopsided win if I remember correctly Florida State in 2017 Miami Texas the last couple years into the 2020s Mike you also brought up the when we were kind of throwing this back and forth in the group chat the the Sabin Ty raade I suppose when after they played with who was in New Mexico State you know I what was sabin's exact quote like we'll whoever scheduled us do you want to call like he looked at the reporter and was just like do you want to call and and schedule games for us because we'll play whoever wants to play us and at that at that point you know it was chugging right along so who really did want to play Alabama but I Mike you got any additional thoughts on this yeah I mean it he hasn't been asked about it in a while um or I guess he wasn't asked about it his last few years now that he's no longer the coach they haven't I mean Alabama hasn't really had any scheduling news in a while they kind of had that binge where they scheduled a bunch of these home and home games uh which obviously replacing these neutral site games that they used to have um but there it hasn't really been a topic in a while and it's not really it was kind of out of left field from Riley in terms of I don't think anybody's been talking about Alabama scheduling soft for a while I don't think it's it's been the case um it's it seemed misplaced because really bigger deal is the SEC only having eight conference games because then you're scheduling one major team you know which was Texas last year and then you had kind of your two um group of five teams which for Alabama last year was what Middle Tennessee and South Florida and then you have your FCS team which for them last year was Chattanooga whereas you go back I was just looking at Lincoln Riley schedules when he was the coach at Oklahoma the Big 12 had you know nine conference games at that point they did have that kind of one big non-conference game I think one year was Ohio state for them one year was UCLA and then they had had some lesser games you know South Dakota was in there UTEP um tan um so is there not there's not really a big difference I think there's probably a fair argument from other conferences that the SEC should be playing nine conference games I think that's probably what Lincoln's getting at I don't think that's an Alabama specific thing I think that's an SEC thing so again I think it's a little bit misplaced um but Alabama's schedule is not out of the ordinary it hasn't been out of the ordinary you have that one big game you have the two group of five you have the one FCS it's been their formula for a while it's been a lot of schools formula for a while um so I don't know like it's kind of weird the point Nick made in that that mini tie rate I don't know if it qualified as a full tie rate back then but was that it was difficult to schedule games and if you need any evidence of that it's the fact that Alabama had to go to USF to play a football game that doesn't happen 10 years ago they'd take the money come to Alabama and be done with it but it did become increasingly difficult and I do think two things could be true at once the SEC should play nine games there's no excuse for it right at the same time you can say that the sec's eight games are much more difficult than what the pack 12's nine games were they could play 11 games in the Pack 12 it wouldn't be the same level of difficulty that's what frustrated me so much you heard a lot out of the Big 10 you know getting when they went to nine suddenly everybody else had to do it and that the SEC was weak for not doing it's like well yeah you got I mean look at the schedule it's nine of yours eight of theirs like what are we really talking about here if you're playing Ruckers or yeah whatever you know Northwestern it's probably the same ASC team scheduling Middle Tennessee or group of five team a better group of five team it's just it's strange Sav retired and he's still somehow catching Strays for no apparent reason and there's a lot you could you could get on him about on different things but I thought Lincoln would go after him for the no huddle offense before he'd go after him for uh schedule that was just weird and I think your point though is kind of what Lincoln's trying to get at is if you schedule for fans then you're playing 12 sec games or you're playing 12 major conference games because that's what fans want to watch like every fan will tell you they don't want to go sit through a Utah State game or whatever um and I think ultimately college football's probably heading that Direction it's slowly evolving towards that um where I don't know how long it's going to take but I think that's what the TV networks ultimately going to want but in the interim like you have to make sure that you're qualifying or putting your team in the best position to qualify for the playoffs so if that's you know Missouri playing the schedule they are this year and giving themselves the best chance to make the SEC Championship and sneak into the playoff then they're doing what's best for them that's why I think this year the if the Missouri thing comes up again it's going to be so interesting the committee needs to draw a line in the sand that says you can't schedule your way in in terms of a week schedule I'd rather you lose three really good games and get and put you in than Lo than win a bunch of games that don't matter like it shouldn't be oh the field is expand you can do less No it should be an incentive to do more I think that's what it they should figure out a way to incentivize it I think it's inherent that it should be incentivized that way but I think some schools are going to try to work around well what if you have a Missouri that goes undefeated in the regular season goes to the SEC Championship Game loses they have one loss and then you have an Alabama team that played a much harder schedule has three losses I don't think there's any way Alabama gets in over Missouri even though there strength of schedule might be much harder head tohe that's kind of a oh yeah let's let's put that aside yeah good point because then you're assuming to Missouri beat Alabama let's say they didn't play this year but if Alabama had two losses and Missouri had one right I would put Alabama in ahead of them and they didn't play because Alabama tried to play somebody I mean ultimately that's what you have to do you can't this is a TV product the cfp is a extension of a TV network like you gotta play good games and all these ads you you talk about Lincoln Riley saying they don't schedule the hands the ads need to start scheduling for the fans because the attendance issue is not really going away like it's going to continue to be incentivized to not go to games in person so they need to do these things and again this is incumbent on the selection committee draw a line in the sand make a statement if it hurts a school for a season okay but we got to get to a place where people aren't scared to schedule games and I'm I'm not advocating for it but the skeptic in me says that on December 7th whatever the date is that we have the selection committee that they're still going to tier teams undefeated one lost two lost and that's how you're going to see teams ranked um I I still think that's the way they think I think there's still enough support uh I'm just speaking anecdotally on Twitter like National reporters that are going to advocate for a one loss whoever you know Utah team or undefeated Utah team over a two lost SEC team or whatever the case may be like you're you're going to get those teams that just get popularized a little bit um we've seen it before I think Washington was probably in that category you know justifiably so last year TCU a couple years ago like those teams are they're going to pick up some popular support um because people are it's different there's a novelty factor for those teams winning as they do and it's like how can you keep an undefeated Florida State team out how can you do that it's the skeptic in me still says it's going to be take your undefeated teams take your one lost teams and see who's left after that that's what's gonna be and if you want to put a week scheduling undefeated or one lost team in that's fine just make them the 13 seed like if you want to say okay we're going to put you in the playoff but you got to play your way in use the seating to send your message you can do that too now my fear is that Mike you absolutely right because it's what the committee sees is zero and their eyes just light up right um the that's why the Florida state thing you hope that that's a sign that they can kind of make it a a reasoned decision um I don't want seminal fans jumping in here telling me Rel litigating the whole thing but they they made the right call and they thought through a difficult situation so let's do that when it comes to schedule and doesn't not to get too far off track like Alex golish the south Florida Coach who came out this week was asked about why you're playing Miami and Alabama um I think there's a valid point there like if you're a group of five team you want your easiest path to getting to the playoff um the least like if you're an undefeated group of five team you want to be in that position where the committee thinks you're the best group of five team out there so that obviously if you go undefeated in your conference you win it you're automatically in that conversation and then it's comparing the group of five Champions and I think if you have an undefeated record that might put you in that 12 spot um now you're if you're passing up those games you're probably giving up some money but if you make the playoff then you're getting money so it's an interesting uh dilemma that didn't exist before because there was no automatic qualifier for a group of five teams before I mean Cincinnati was the only team that got in in the four te playoff if I'm correct so um it's kind of a uncharted waters and uh might change the strategy and how some of those group of five teams schedule e