“Early on, we can talk about how much noise Bama would have made in the 2024 CFP, and then later, after the Crimson Tide have suffered a few surprising losses, we can discuss whether they should be included in the 2025 12-team playoff. It’s that in-betweeny time that I’m worried about,” said Joe Tessitore via Apple FaceTime.

Kirk Herbstreit even had a chance to weigh in, adding, “How much is Bama paying for their roster in 2025? We got quite a bit of mileage out of that for Ohio State last year, so maybe we can explore that a bit?”

“What if we just didn’t talk so much?” said Greg McElroy via iOS message early Sunday morning.

Regardless of which announcing approach is taken this fall, the task of filling the air left by the absence of comments like, “Reminder, folks: Ryan Williams is only 17,” is a challenging one. A CFB News Now analysis of Alabama telecasts found that a full 41% of comments made during Bama games last season in some way pertained to Ryan Williams’ age. The repetition was so consistent that, by season’s end, about as many people could name the current United States president as could tell you that Ryan Williams was 17, one YouGov poll showed.

“My Dearest Crimson Tide,” the letter opened, “You are everything we could ever want in a CFP contender.”

“You’ve been going through some tough times recently, we get that: there was the surprise at Vanderbilt, whatever happened at Tennessee, and that disaster in Norman, Oklahoma most recently. Things haven’t exactly gone to plan this season.”

“Still, we just can’t quit you,” the letter went on, “and the thought of going through an entire playoff cycle—an expanded one, no less!—without hearing that Ryan Williams is only 17 years old at least fifty times (will he be 18 by then?) is just too much to bear.”

“At the end of the day, we’ve been through a lot together. It was never about Nick, it was alway YOU!!! From Tua relieving Hurts to Devonta Smith’s dismantling of Ohio State…even those tough losses to Clemson. It just wouldn’t be a CFP without you. (We would have put you higher, probably closer to where SMU is at, but we didn’t want anyone to get suspicious, hopefully you’re okay with that.)”

“You could have a hundred losses,” the group note—apparently compiled in Canva—concluded, “and you would still win our hearts.”