For Alabama Crimson Tide fans they spent three hours Saturday afternoon in utter despair. The Crimson Tide start every season with SEC Championship expectations, so an uncompetitive 28-7 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs in Atlanta put a bad taste in the mouths of everyone in Tuscaloosa.
However, all of this talk about how a loss in an earned postseason game should affect their College Football Playoff chances are not grounded in reality.
History tells us that the Crimson Tide will be in the 12-team playoff pool that will be announced tomorrow.
Think back to just last year — the first season of the 12-team college football playoff. The SEC Champion Georgia Bulldogs earned a first-round bye with a win over Texas in Atlanta. Neither team was considered a “bubble team” going into the matchup, so the comparison doesn’t hold much weight.
In the ACC, however, it was not the same case. The 10th-ranked SMU Mustangs were taking on the 16th-ranked Clemson Tigers.
The 9-3 Tigers entered the game fresh off their third loss of the season the week prior. The 11-1 Mustangs would go on to lose in that ACC Championship.
Instead of punishing the Mustangs, a team that was criticized for having an easy road to a top-ten seeding, for playing the extra game, the College Football Playoff Committee kept them in the pool.
Again, that was a 10th-ranked team losing a conference championship game to number 16.
In Alabama’s case, the ninth-ranked Crimson Tide were on the losing end of a conference championship game against the third-ranked Bulldogs, a team they have already beaten.
You cannot punish a team for playing in the conference championship.
The committee hasn’t done it before, and they won’t do it now.
The 12-team playoff will be announced tomorrow at 12 P.M. EST.
Alabama’s Resume
Alabama is fighting with the Big 12 runners-up, the BYU Cougars, the tenth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and the 13th-ranked Miami Hurricanes.
When it comes to strength of schedule, it isn’t even a contest.
Alabama had the 11th-hardest schedule in America with regular-season wins against ranked teams like Georgia and Vanderbilt. Their lone ranked loss came to a fellow playoff team in eighth-ranked Oklahoma.
The other three teams do not crack the top 40 in this metric.
Miami’s best win is against Notre Dame. Notre Dame, who has the same record as Miami, has just one win against a ranked opponent, and it came vs 9-3 USC.
BYU has the best case as an 11-1 conference runner-up. They beat 15th-ranked Utah earlier in the season but dropped both games it played against playoff-caliber teams.
If I had a vote, which I so do not, it would go to Alabama and Miami.
Miami has the best win of the remaining three when it upset Notre Dame in Week 1.
Their two losses are to very quality opponents. Miami lost to Louisville by three and SMU in overtime.
History Tells Us Alabama Will Still Be In College Football Playoff After Loss To Georgia