After the SEC released its 2012 schedule, there were some rumblings that Nick Saban may be unhappy about the Tide yet again having several opponents having bye week’s, but Saban at least in public didn’t seem upset.

“If we would've had a bye week before LSU, we would've gone from Oct. 6 to Nov. 10 without having a home game,” Saban said. “Those were the choices.”

In other words, didn’t sound the Tide have much of choice; Florida and Alabama are the only two teams from each division to have to play both Texas A & M and Missouri next year.

It's a different schedule than we thought we were going to have,” Saban said. “Games get moved around. But this is a one-year thing, and I'm sure the league office did the best job that they could do taking all the teams in our league into consideration ... to put the best schedule together that was the fairest and most competitive for everyone.”

One thing is certain; the Tide won’t have many cupcakes next year which may not be a bad thing. Let’s hope a tough schedule makes for a tougher team next year.

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