Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne took to social media Sunday to express his thoughts on Alabama football being left out of the College Football Playoff.

“Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country,” Byrne posted to X. “We had an extremely challenging schedule and recognize there were two games in particular that we did not perform as well as we should have.”

Byrne then brought up what this could mean for future scheduling with the committee giving the final spot to SMU, who had a much weaker strength of schedule per ESPN, compared to Alabama.

“We have said that we would need to see how strength of schedule would be evaluated by the CFP,” Byrne posted. “With this outcome, we will need to (assess) how many P4 non-conference games make sense in the future to put us in the best position to participate in the CFP. That is not good for college football.”

Alabama has a variety of future non-conference matchups scheduled for the next decade, including games with Ohio State, Notre Dame,

Alabama will now play in the Reliaquest Bowl on Dec. 31 in Tampa against Michigan, a rematch of last year’s Rose Bowl.

“With that said, we do not need to hang our heads and now need to finish this season strong,” Byrne posted. “We have a great group of young men who have led us with Coach DeBoer through the last year and we look forward to our opportunity in the @ReliaQuestBowl. #RollTide”

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.