Nick Saban makes College Football Playoff case for Alabama football

Alabama football coach Nick Saban made his team's case for a College Football Playoff spot during "The College Football Show" on ESPN's social media platforms on Saturday.

Hosts Skubie Mageza and A.J. McCarron asked Saban about his thoughts on his team's season in the context of the CFP rankings, which are due a final version on Sunday morning.

Saban cited Bryce Young's inability to fully practice after his shoulder injury and the nature of the Tide's two losses as to why Alabama has a solid case for a playoff spot.

"I think there's some arguments for this team," Saban said. "We started out really strong. Bryce got hurt at Arkansas. So you have to look at how teams are playing at present. We finished 3-0. We played some pretty good teams, played Ole Miss on the road when they were No. 9 in the country. But Bryce missed the A&M game, we overcame that and won that game. He couldn't really practice for the next month. He was on a really low pitch count, couldn't throw the ball much in practice. So I think that affected how we developed on offense.

"We lost two games on the road to one top-5 team and one top-10 team on the last play of the game. But now that he's healthier and he's able to practice, I think we're a different team. And I think you should look at the circumstances around a 2-loss team versus a 1-loss team and how they are playing at the end of the season, how they are playing at present. I think our team played well down the stretch and we're playing well at present. We are 5th in the nation in scoring offense, and 10th in scoring defense.

"We had some vulnerabilities in the middle of the season in a tough part of the year when we had some tough games on the road. We got beat on the last play of the game twice, which hopefully we can do better and we learn from that. Our team showed a lot of resiliency to stick with it, finish the year the right way, continue to improve, and we ended up winning our last three games."

CFP CHANCES? Can Alabama football make College Football Playoff after TCU, USC losses?

BLAKE TOPPMEYER: Georgia football runs the SEC – and Kirby Smart deserves top honors

WHERE WILL ALABAMA GO BOWLING? Alabama football bowl game: Projections, live updates from selection day

McCarron, the former Alabama title-winning QB, continued to make the case for Alabama ahead of Ohio State in Sunday's CFP rankings. That is a swerve around the social media discussion after TCU's overtime loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game. The Horned Frogs suffered their first loss after a 12-0 regular season on Saturday, a 31-28 defeat to the Wildcats.

Ohio State lost 45-23 at home to Michigan last week, its first loss of the season.

"To lose two games by a combined total of four points, it is completely different in my eyes than one loss at home versus a team that has their Heisman candidate and best player out (Michigan running back Blake Corum, who had knee surgery earlier this week), and you lose by 22 points," McCarron said.

No. 4 USC was walloped 47-24 against Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game on Friday. That result, coupled with the TCU loss, opened the door for conversation around those two teams, No. 5 Ohio State and No. 6 Alabama.

The conversations have a shelf life of hours, with the CFP rankings reveal and the semifinal matchup announcement at 11 a.m. CT Sunday.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Nick Saban makes College Football Playoff case for Alabama football