Greg Byrne, the University of Alabama’s athletic director, received backlash on the internet after a misleading social media post.
He outlined what he believed was the Crimson Tide’s case to make the College Football Playoff, highlighting how the school needed to assess the difficulty of its non-conference schedule as its strength of schedule seemed to not reflect well in the CFP.
The users of X hit Byrne with a community note to correct the record. “All of Alabamas losses came in conference play. Alabamas non conference schedule was one of the easiest in the country playing two Group of 5 schools, WKU and USF, one FCS school and one Power 4 team, the 5-7 Wisconsin badgers who finished 12th in the Big Ten.”
Pointing out the difficulty, or lack thereof, of Alabama’s non-conference schedule didn’t make sense in this context. The Crimson Tide’s four non-conference opponents were Western Kentucky, South Florida, Wisconsin and Mercer.
Byrne has been Alabama’s athletic director since 2017, after serving as AD at Arizona (2010-2017) and Mississippi State (2008-2010). He was also assistant AD at Oregon, Oregon State and Kentucky.
One of Byrne’s first notable actions as AD was to make Nick Saban the highest-paid coach in college football history. The Alabama Crimson Tide will play Michigan in the 2024 ReliaQuest Bowl.
