However much it sounded like sour grapefruit - after all, Alabama is facing Michigan in the Citrus Bowl - Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban had every right to express his opinion on Sunday that "We have made everything about the playoffs in college football."
In fact, some might argue that Saban's decision to send quarterback Tua Tagovailoa back onto the field to run a two-minute offense with Bama already bashing Mississippi State 35-7 in the opening half - a decision that may have cost the Tide a spot in the College Football Playoff after Tagovailoa was lost for the season with a severe hip injury while running that two-minute drill - is why Alabama missed this year's playoff.
Had the Tide not lost to LSU the previous week with a somewhat gimpy Tagovailoa on the field, Saban surely would have sent him to the bench in favor of backup Mac Jones by the time the score was 28-7, much less 35-7.
You could almost hear Saint Nick thinking, "Yeah, we lost to LSU by five points on our home field. But look what we've done otherwise. When we can lead State by this much on its own field, we surely deserve to be No. 4 when the playoffs are announced. But just in case, watch us pile on another touchdown or four."
But then Tagovailoa went down. And Bama lost at Auburn at least partly thanks to Jones throwing two interceptions that the Tigers returned for touchdowns. And just like that, the Tide was out of the CFP for the first time since it began in 2014.
Not to pick on Nick, but he's pretty much been a crybaby ever since, and it's time to stop. When you've won two of the last five national championships, be grateful for what you've got rather than complaining about what you don't.
It began with more defense than needed for why Tagovailoa was still playing against Mississippi State with that 35-7 lead. He kept talking about how the quarterback wanted to be in there. Yet in an interview with ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit that aired over the weekend, Tagovailoa seemed to indicate that Saban may have wanted him in there as much or more than Tua wanted to be there.
"Coach told us, 'We want to get a two-minute drive started,'" Tagovailoa told Herbstreit. "It's a decision Coach made."
To be fair, injuries such as the one the Bama quarterback suffered shortly after that are rare. Nor can a football coach or player overly worry about injuries. They're part of the sport.
Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban walks off the field after losing to Auburn in an NCAA college football game in Auburn, Ala., on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019. (Chris Shimek/The Decatur Daily via AP)But Saban also whined about a late penalty against the Tide at Auburn, making it sound as if the refs could have overlooked the illegal-substitution infraction. Perhaps Saban could have overlooked the very scant possibility that Auburn would fake a punt deep in its own territory, which is why he was substituting at that point.
Nor is Saban's concern that the bowls no longer matter to certain players without validation. Several of Bama's current stars could determine that the risk of getting injured in a bowl game is too great to attempt to win one more for the Tide.
Playoff teams haven't yet been confronted with this, but several nonplayoff teams have in recent years, including Auburn, LSU and Georgia.
As if to criticize any Tider who might travel that path, Saban was also quoted in Monday's Times Free Press saying, "I'm sure that guys are going to make individual decisions based on their circumstance and their situation. What we want to focus on are the guys who want to look to the future and look to try to improve themselves as players and to improve our team in getting back to the standard that we want to play to."
In other words, if you don't put team over self, good riddance.
Of course, all coaches are in a dangerous spot on this issue. Side with the players, and fans and boosters might declare your allegiance should be to the school rather than the individual. Side with the school, and rival coaches will tell recruits that Alabama doesn't care about you as a person.
And however frustrating it is for fans and coaches, you can somewhat understand a player sitting out a bowl. Especially with so little financial protection from injury available to them, which is something the NCAA badly needs to address in the form of insurance that would pay a player what he'd lose if injured.
But if fear of injury is growing, it's not universal. Merely observe Kentucky junior quarterback Lynn Bowden, who announced Monday that he'll be chasing his NFL dreams rather than returning to Big Blue for the 2020 season, but also added "This place is my forever home. It won't be easy to leave that, but now is the time to enter the 2020 NFL draft."
Then he threw in the kicker: "But first, we've got one more game (the Belk Bowl against Virginia Tech) to win."
Every team that's in a bowl has one more game to win. And every fan base such as Kentucky's for whom a bowl is a big deal surely hopes all its players treat that holiday trip as Bowden is, unwilling to abandon his teammates over fear of getting hurt.
This doesn't mean that at the top of the food chain, where Alabama has long resided, a spot in the playoff shouldn't be the ultimate goal.
But for most of the 74 other programs who'll play in a bowl game with no chance to be crowned national champs, it's also nice to know at least a few of those players are excited about having one more game to win.
Mark WiedmerContact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.