Nick Saban, wearing a red tie and blazer, made a passionate argument on ESPN around the potential consequences to leaving Alabama, a school that still pays him a half-million annually, out of this year's 12-team College Football Playoff field.

The final spot in the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff came down to to the Alabama Crimson Tide and Southern Methodist Mustangs. That left ESPN analyst and former Tide head coach Nick Saban in a difficult spot for objective analysis in a bracket reveal that, somehow, needed more than half an hour to unveil only a dozen teams.

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban took aim at strength of schedule being a true factor when it came to rankings and seeding for the College Football Playoff on Sunday. Saban watched as his old team was left out of the 12-team field while SMU was able to ...