The Alabama Crimson Tide may not be loved by everyone in the college football world, but even in this post-Nick Saban era, they are still clearly respected.
That’s what the College Football Playoff rankings that emerged earlier this week showed. They were the first CFP rankings of the season, and Alabama slotted in at No. 5.
It’s a notable difference for Alabama from its placement in the Associated Press Poll — the AP has ‘Bama ranked at No. 9.
The Crimson Tide spot also serves as a bit of an insult to Tennessee, UCLA and BYU.
The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel broke it all down, and it’s fascinating to think about, so we’ll look at what he had to say.
Alabama Over Tennessee, UCLA, BYU
The most-striking example of Alabama’s prestige comes in the fact that the Crimson Tide are eight spots ahead of a Tennessee team that beat ‘Bama 26-10 less than a month ago.
“No matter how far removed we get from the Nick Saban era, the committee loves it some Alabama,” Mandel writes. “The Tide are the highest of the six two-loss SEC teams, eight spots above a Tennessee team that beat them 26-10 not long ago. To be fair, it would be impossible to rank every one of those teams by head-to-head results, but an eight-team gap is wild.”
There’s also plenty of case to be made that UCLA and/or BYU could be ahead of Alabama, as well.
“Not to mention, 6-2 Bama is higher than an undefeated UCLA team and a 7-1 BYU team with two Top 25 wins (No. 11 Notre Dame and No. 22 Arizona),” Mandel writes.
The Cougars have a chance this weekend to state their case when they play undefeated Utah, but BYU’s placement also puts it in danger of missing the CFP entirely if the Cougars can’t beat the Utes.
It seems Alabama has still been given room for error.
Alabama Can Get In With 3 Losses
The committee is setting up for various scenarios where SEC teams get in with three losses, at least based on how it all breaks down at the moment.
“The SEC has spent the past two years publicly and privately lobbying the CFP to make sure the committee properly rewards its superior schedule strength,” Mandel writes. “Clearly, it worked. As a result, I’ve gone from thinking the league will get four Playoff teams this year to five, even if several of them are 9-3; that the Big 12 will have a hard time getting a second team in if Utah beats BYU this week; and that — brace for it — if Ohio State loses again, there’s a real possibility the Big Ten only gets two.”
The Crimson Tide would clearly prefer to win out. But they play LSU on Saturday, and no game in the SEC is easy, and the committee is clearly fully bought in on that fact.
Alabama’s CFP Ranking Insults Tennessee, UCLA, BYU