Those of us with more years on our odometer will recall that CPB scheduled "soft" teams like Clemson, Virginia Tech and South Carolina between the SEC and major inter-sectional games on the schedule. Most of the teams in the Middle Atlantic haven't changed that much from a historical perspective. They remain "soft" and this is the "difficult" schedule Clemson plays. It is easy for writers looking for a by-line to dismiss just how physically and mentally demanding it is for a team to face an SEC schedule while Clemson faces a couple of opponents who may give their SEC lookalike team a contest in the odd years.
Let's note some other important points:
1) Bryant scheduled Va Tech because his old roommate was the AD there, and it helped VT financiallly.
2) The Alabama-Clemson tie was quite strong even before Dabo.
3) For much of Bryant's tenure, we could not play "non-Southern" teams in large part because they wouldn't play us because of the racial issues (not that I blame the opponents but let's not blame CPB in isolation).
4) Because back in the day schedules were made TEN YEARS OUT, even the move to playing fully integrated teams took a full decade to get going. It's not like anyone was banging down the door to play us, either.
5) The Wichita St game they gave us such grief about only happened because in August of 1978, SMU backed out of the Dallas-based return game in a dispute over venue. Bryant told SMU that it was late to be rescheduling a 1979 game, but he would do so IF he could find an opponent. He wound up with Wichita St because the coach there in 1978 had played for him at ATM. Unfortunately, that guy got fired prior to the game taking place.
6) When Alabama won the 1961 national title, they whined that we didn't play the 2nd and 3rd best SEC teams, Ole Miss and LSU. So we put them on the schedule yearly starting in 1964, and then they whined that we didn't play Georgia (who miraculously got better once they didn't have to play us). In 1977, they whined we didn't have to play Kentucky, who went 10-1 but was on probation.
The fact is, you can ALWAYS name "team Alabama didn't play" because it's impossible to play round robin in a 128-team field.
But don't tell me Boise St or UCF "deserves a fair chance" and then complain about who Alabama plays.