Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe announced on Thursday that he is declaring for this year's NFL Draft.

In an announcement on social media, Milroe thanked "my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," his family, teammates and "the entire Alabama family."

"Football has always been my passion, and since I was a kid, I dreamed of competing at the highest level. Through every win, every tough loss, and any criticism along the way, my love and dedication to this game has never wavered," Milroe wrote. "Each day, my gratitude for the opportunity to play this sport I love only grows stronger.

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"With that said, I am declaring for the 2025 NFL Draft. Roll Tide forever!"

Milroe posted a career-high 2,844 passing yards in the 2024 season; his 726 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns on the ground this season were also the most he had with Alabama.

Milroe is not likely to be an early first-rounder, but it should not be much of a surprise if he does wind up being taken on the first night of the draft this April.

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His college career did not end on a high note as his Crimson Tide fell to Michigan, 19-13, in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Tuesday. 

In what seemed like déjà vu from the Rose Bowl the previous season, the Alabama offense was stopped by the Wolverines' defense on fourth down on the other side of the field. Milroe went 16-for-32 for 194 yards and ran for just four.

In all, Milroe played 38 games with Alabama, completing 64.3% of his passes for 6,016 yards, 45 touchdowns and 20 interceptions; on the ground, he ran for a total of 1,577 yards and 33 touchdowns.

Milroe figures to join a quarterback class that will feature Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward. It remains to be seen what Quinn Ewers and Carson Beck will do.

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During his storied coaching career, Nick Saban rarely shied away from an opportunity to share his thoughts on college football-centric hot topics.

Saban and the rest of ESPN's "College GameDay" crew were in Indiana ahead of the 12-team College Football Playoff opener between Notre Dame and the Hoosiers. While the high-stakes game was the main topic during the pregame show, embattled Ohio State coach Ryan Day was also discussed.

Saban came to Day's defense and directed his ire at Buckeyes fans, suggesting they shoulder at least some of the blame for the cloud of negativity circling the program.

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Saban said the noise surrounding the program is a distraction to the coaches and players and also made it clear he respects Day and his program.

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"I think every coach has gotta define how he wants to do it, and I have a lot of respect for Ryan Day and how he’s tried to do it," Saban said. "For me, I always wanted to get every player in the organization to reach their full potential. It wasn't so much about the outcome, it was what you had to do to make everybody better.

"But a big part of that was insulating the players from external factors — criticism, internet. I used to tell the players all the time, ‘Why do you care about what some guy puts on the internet who’s a fat guy in his underwear living in his mother’s basement? Why do you care? Why does that mean anything to you? Why does that affect you in any way, shape or form? We should be focused on what we control and what we can do.’

"It’s the same thing for the fans. I would tell the fans the same thing. If Ohio State wants to beat Michigan, they need to be positive about their coach and their players. There’s nobody that wants to beat them worse than the players and the coaches. That's No. 1. No. 2, they have an opportunity to win the national championship. Everybody ought to be supporting the hell out of them so that they have the best opportunity to do it and quit all this negative bulls---."

While Day has compiled a 66-10 record at Ohio State, his Buckeyes have lost four straight to the Michigan Wolverines.

Day's underwhelming results against Michigan have drawn criticism and raised concerns about the coach's job security. Day's focus is on the Buckeyes' upcoming game against Tennessee in the College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes host the Volunteers Saturday.

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Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban took aim at strength of schedule being a true factor when it came to rankings and seeding for the College Football Playoff on Sunday.

Saban watched as his old team was left out of the 12-team field while SMU was able to get into the bracket despite losing the ACC Championship to Clemson. Alabama was seeded No. 11 in the penultimate rankings but failed to find its way into the final bracket reveal.

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Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne pointed out late Saturday that the Crimson Tide were No. 3 in opponents’ winning percentage and had three wins against teams in the CFP poll before the bracket was released. He wrote on X that "strength of schedule matters."

But Saban suggested on ESPN that Alabama may have been thought more highly of if strength of schedule truly mattered.

"I think one of the things that I’ve mentioned throughout this football season is if we don’t take strength of scheduling into consideration, is there any benefit to scheduling really good teams in the future," Saban said. "Like, here at Alabama, who’s supposed to play Notre Dame, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Florida State in the future outside of the (SEC).

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"Well, those are great games for fans to see – and that’s what I think we should be doing in college football, it’s creating more inventory for great games that people are interested in – but do you enhance people wanting to do that where what’s the athletic director going to do, he may go cancel all those games now knowing that the SEC is tough enough."

Saban did say, however, he thought the 12 best teams in college football were represented in the bracket.

"But at the same time I do think the best teams are in the playoff, which I think is most important," Saban said. "And no coach should have any complaint about his circumstance is relative to get into the playoff or out of the playoff because they all controlled their own destiny and they all had opportunities. They had some flaws and bad losses that contributed to their circumstances. 

"So, this could be a learning lesson for each and every team and every individual on those teams."

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The Alabama Crimson Tide were on the outside looking into the College Football Playoff bracket on Sunday after Clemson received the No. 12 seed and SMU got an at-large bid.

Alabama hoped the College Football Playoff selection committee would look at their overall body of work after conference championship weekend. The committee had Alabama as the No. 11 seed last week, but the Crimson Tide had nothing to play for on Saturday.

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As a result of Clemson’s last-second win over SMU, both ACC schools received bids into the 12-team field. No. 11 SMU is set to hit the road to play No. 6 Penn State.

The college football world seemingly cheered as fans learned Alabama would miss the playoff.

Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne made a pitch to the committee late Saturday.

"Strength of schedule matters," he wrote on X. "Not all schedules and conferences are created equal.

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"Six of our eight wins are against bowl eligible teams and have come against some of the top teams in the SEC, including SEC champion Georgia."

Byrne also included a graphic, showing that Alabama was No. 3 in opponents’ winning percentage, No. 17 in ESPN strength of schedule and had three wins against teams in the College Football Top 25 poll. The team finished 9-3 and had some brutal losses.

It’s the first year of the 12-team field for the College Football Playoff. The field expanded from four teams.

The Crimson Tide were in last year’s playoff but fell to No. 1 Michigan, 27-20. It was Nick Saban’s last game as head coach. Kalen DeBoer took over before the start of the 2024 season.

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