Nick Saban famously hated hypotheticals when he was head coach at Alabama, but once again on Friday brought up what might have happened had the Crimson Tide been in the 2022 College Football Playoff.

During his weekly appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on ESPN, Saban was asked about times over the years he wasn’t sure his team was going to be included in the playoff when the final pairings were announced. Instead of mentioning times his team got in despite not winning the SEC championship (such as 2017), he veered toward his apparent continued grievance that his 2022 team was left out of the 4-team field after ending the regular season with a 10-2 record and finishing second in the SEC West behind LSU.

“It was all subjective,” Saban said. “We would have been 13-point favorites over TCU if we would have played them, and they got in the playoffs and we didn’t. I’m not criticizing TCU, it wasn’t their fault. But that is the subjective part of it.”

McAfee then asked rhetorically, “what happened to TCU during that run?”

Saban laughed and replied, “I was at that game.”

Here’s the video, via ESPN:

The Horned Frogs, for those who might not remember, beat Michigan 51-45 in the Fiesta Bowl playoff semifinal before being routed 65-7 by Georgia in the national title game in Los Angeles. TCU got into the playoff as the No. 3 seed despite losing the Big 12 championship game, with unbeaten Michigan the 2-seed and Ohio State — whose only loss was to Michigan — at No. 4.

Alabama beat Kansas State 45-20 in the Sugar Bowl to finish 11-2. No two-loss team ever made the College Football Playoff during the four-team era that spanned from 2004-23.

It’s not the first time Saban — now a full-time commentator for ESPN  has brought up hypothetical point spreads involving the 2022 playoff. He also did so during an appearance on Fox at halftime of that year’s Big Ten championship game, the night before the playoff field was revealed.

“The whole goal is to get the best teams in,” Saban said at the time. “And what I would say to the committee, if we played any of these teams on the edge of getting in, would we be the underdog or would we be the favorite?”