If I had to guess, I'd bet that Alabama has trouble scheduling bigger teams....even in those sponsored games at the beginning of the year. They typically destroy teams in those games and pretty much take them out of contention for the CFP.Auburn and Mississippi State? Was either of those schools over .500 in your conference? You have some good teams in your conference, but Alabama doesn't play lots of them in the way the SEC is scheduled. As long as Alabama schedules The Citadel, Arkansas State and Louisiana Lafayette, look for criticism. If they upped that a little, maybe to mid-levels like Army, UCLA, Michigan State, TCU or whatever, you wouldn't see the critics sniping. Those Citadel types are just too inappropriate for Alabama to be playing.
Clemson's easy schedule is a problem, and if they had one-loss, they have no chance of being in the playoffs because of that. They are only in because undefeated.
And I say that because they haven't been shy about scheduling those type games before this year.