This is an opinion column.

So this is the way the Alabama football dynasty ends. Not with a bang but a series of helpless whimpers.

Former coach Nick Saban, in his diminished role as Pat McAfee’s potty-mouthed straight man, delivered a sad-eyed screed on strength of schedule. His words carried no weight with a playoff committee led by the athletics director of the school that handed the GOAT an L as a retirement gift.