"Losing matters" - CFB analyst disagrees with Nick Saban's ACC comment
The SEC-ACC controversy is not likely to go away any time soon. Now, Nick Saban is in the middle of it too, as ACC Network analyst Eric Mac Lain took issue with a statement from the former Alabama head coach.
Mac Lain, a former Clemson Tigers offensive lineman himself, is one of those who think that the 2-loss Miami Hurricanes should be ranked ahead of the 3-loss Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff rankings. His position is opposite to that of Nick Saban.
“Losing matters. If you are one and ten, one and 11, but you beat number 1 Georgia, we don’t care. Losing is a part of it. If you have three losses, you are done, you are out," Mac Lain said.
He further analyzed the situation and explained his thoughts:
“You have a 10-2 Miami team that lost to a Georgia Tech that by the way, took these guys (Georgia) at full strength to the wire, eight overtimes, a two point decision earlier in the game from winning. A Syracuse team that’s ranked, that beat the team that Boise State just beat (UNLV) and did their thing, all these different things are playing in."
The ACC Network analyst even compared the Indiana Hoosiers favorably to the 3-loss SEC teams, who, at least in his estimation, should be out of CFP consideration.
“Let’s stick with the facts. Saying that who you beat, that is great and that’s important, if you are 11 and 1 and you are Indiana, That matters. When you have three losses, that discussion is off the table for me," Mac Lain said.
What did Nick Saban say that stirred up the controversy?
Mac Lain’s heated reaction stems from comments that Nick Saban made during ESPN's College Gameday, where he said that the Crimson Tide should make the College Football Playoff regardless of the ACC Championship Game result.
There has been speculation that should the SMU Mustangs lose to the Clemson Tigers, both teams would make the CFP: Clemson as one of the top 5 ranked conference champions, and the Mustangs based on the CFP ranking. SMU entered the game ranked no. 8. Here's what Saban had to say about SMU:
“Who did you beat? SMU, how many top 25 teams did they beat? How many top 25 teams did Alabama beat? And I don’t think that we want to go down the road with this whole playoff team where we enhance people for playing a weaker schedule to get more wins."
“Now, there’s four good teams in the ACC. But SMU played one of them, Miami played one of them. Nobody played those teams, so you can’t even evaluate it based on the good teams in their league," Nick Saban said.
For those keeping score, SMU beat two top-25 teams at the time they played, No. 22 Louisville and No. 18 Pitt, and while their loss was to unranked BYU, the Cougars made it to No. 6 at some point.
In the case of Miami, they didn’t beat a single ranked opponent, but did dominate the only SEC team they faced, Florida, while losing to Georgia Tech and Syracuse.
Alabama, on the other hand, has four top-25 wins and one loss. Their two other losses were against unranked Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. So while the Tide does have one more loss than the Hurricanes, Nick Saban is probably right in saying that they have faced a tough schedule.
The debate isn’t going anywhere soon, and with the CFP announcing their final ranking on Sunday, there should be plenty of discussion and controversy over the next few days.