This is an opinion column.

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Alabama had better wins than SMU and Alabama had a better strength of schedule, too.

But was the Crimson Tide a better football team than the ACC upstart with the easier road to the College Football Playoff?

Who’s to say?

Maybe so?

Probably not?

Too close to call?

In a selection process that comes down to the eye test, Alabama looked awful against Oklahoma and SMU held its own against Clemson. That was enough to keep Alabama out of the first College Football Playoff.

GOODMAN: Fight like a badger

Never mind that Clemson was mediocre at best this season, and that Dabo Swinney’s Tigers lost to Georgia 34-3, it was the right decision to include SMU over the Tide. Why? It’s pretty simple. Alabama wasn’t a great team this season and didn’t deserve a spot.

In the end, the College Football Playoff corruption committee let everyone know that the Nick Saban shine is officially gone in Tuscaloosa.

Maybe the next phase of the tournament will have a couple play-in games for teams that never really got their acts together during the regular season, but could, on a good night, theoretically win the national championship.

UCLA basketball, for example, was an 11 seed in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, and the Bruins made it all the way to the championship game before falling in overtime to Gonzaga.

Considering the recent history of the College Football Playoff corruption committee, I was certain that Alabama would be selected to play in the new 12-team tournament and match up with Notre Dame. That’s nothing against SMU. It’s just that the College Football Playoff is a business and Alabama has received the benefit of the doubt in the past.

In an imperfect system, there’s nothing intrinsically fair about putting SMU in over Alabama. But the point of the exercise is to reward teams for playing pretty good on the football field. On average, I think we can all agree that SMU did that better than Alabama this season.

This much we know. The new 12-team playoff is not a failure. Far from it. This has been the most exciting season on record and the playoffs haven’t even started.

The solution to improving the playoffs, of course, isn’t all that complicated. The committee needs to expand the field to 24 teams, do away with all automatic bids and begin ranking the teams with three weeks left in the regular season.

If you think that sounds insane, then I got some crazy news to share. That’s exactly what they do in Division II.

We can prattle on and one about every aspect of the new playoff, but what’s not up for debate is the abject failure of new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer in his first season on the job.

Alabama didn’t make the playoffs in a season that included a loss to Vanderbilt? That math checks out.

As much as I loved Diego Pavia this season, Vanderbilt’s feisty quarterback shouldn’t have come anywhere close to upsetting Alabama.

Coaches and writers try to make football seem really complicated. It’s not. Teams like Vanderbilt and Oklahoma just had more fight than Alabama. If I had to describe Alabama football in three words — and I’m sure I’ll get plenty of emails accepting this challenge — I’d have to go with “not that tough.”

That’s on DeBoer, his coaches and the players, too.

Let’s be real. The defining moment of the season for Alabama was when two-time captain Malachi Moore melted down like a spoiled brat during the final seconds of Alabama’s loss to the Commodores.

Yeah, I got no problem leaving that out of the playoffs.

How has NIL changed the game? I guess I’ll be the first to say it. It made some of these teams soft.

Alabama was one of them.

Army (not allowed NIL by federal law) was not.

Where can DeBoer improve going into Year Two?

It’s pretty clear that DeBoer needs a Scott Cochran-type coach on his staff to keep everyone on edge.

Alabama hasn’t won a non-COVID national championship since 2017. That’s the final season Cochran was on Alabama’s staff. Coincidence? In hindsight, I guess not.

Georgia, too, has had some well-documented problems without Cochran on staff, but the Bulldogs are in the playoffs despite losing to Alabama this season.

DeBoer was handed enough talent to make the playoffs, but Alabama not making the field post-Saban isn’t all that surprising. The biggest shocker this season is that in this era of NIL and the transfer portal, the SEC only placed three teams into the new playoff. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said the league deserved five or six.

Not exactly a super-conference after all.

The SEC had 16 teams this season. Does Sankey deserve some scrutiny for teams like Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina being left out of the playoff?

Sankey didn’t look very amused, but there was a funny moment during the trophy ceremony of the SEC championship game. Georgia won the SEC crown with a 22-19 overtime victory against Texas. It was a spectacular display of elite defenses.

Afterwards, Georgia coach Kirby Smart accepted the conference championship trophy from Sankey. During his celebratory interview with ESPN, Smart then lobbed a rhetorical grenade in the direction of the league’s commissioner.

With the win in Atlanta, Georgia will now receive a first-round bye in the new 12-team College Football Playoff. Smart was asked what the time off would mean for his team.

“It means rest for a team that Greg Sankey and his staff sent on the road all … year … long,” Smart said. “We get to take a little bit of a break and get ready for the College Football Playoff.”

Everyone in the SEC struggled with those pesky road games this season. That’s not going to change next season.

Good news for Alabama, though. The Tide gets mighty Vanderbilt at home.

BE HEARD

Got a question for Joe? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe an email about what’s on your mind. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”