Alabama football
made a small but important move in Tuesday’s
College Football Playoff rankings
. The Crimson Tide moved from No. 10 to No. 9,
leapfrogging Notre Dame
to do so.
The win moved UA off of the cut line, where it was in danger of being leapfrogged by an autobid by dropping one position. The question now: Is Alabama locked in, even if it loses the SEC championship game on Saturday to Georgia?
After the rankings were revealed, CFP selection committee chair Hunter Yurachek was asked whether the committee is open to dropping a conference championship game loser. Yurachek, did not fully answer the question, but ruled nothing out.
“Again, each of the championship games will just give us another data point to evaluate the teams that participated in those championship games, and the idle teams around them,” Yurachek said on a teleconference with reporters. “And we will re-rank the teams one last time this weekend, and the five highest-ranked conference championships and the seven highest-ranked at-large teams will advance to the College Football Playoff.”
Alabama beat Georgia earlier this season. Since then, the Tide fell to Oklahoma, which dropped to No. 10 in the rankings and put it in grave danger of missing out on the CFP for a second year in a row.
During the teleconference with media, Yurachek was asked what the committee would need to see from Alabama in order to lock it into the 12-team field.
“It’s hard to look ahead to say what we need to see from them,” Yurachek said. “The easier thing to see from them would be a win, obviously. But we will judge all of the conference championship games when they’re completed, the results of them 1-25 accordingly.
“So it’s hard for me to say specifically what the committee would be looking for from Alabama. They’re in a really solid position this week at No. 9, got an opportunity in their conference championship to give us another data point.”
Georgia was ranked No. 3 in Tuesday’s top 25. The Bulldogs have not lost since dropping to the Crimson Tide in September in Athens.
Kalen DeBoer said after the Tide beat Auburn on Saturday that he felt his team should be in the playoff regardless of result in the SEC championship game.
“I just think when you’re really trying to have a playoff, you need your best teams in there,” DeBoer said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that we are one of the best teams. I don’t say that arrogantly. I just really believe that’s what it is. There’s a ton of metrics I know people look at: strength of record, FPI. We’re right at the top.
“Especially if you’re even considering us to even be a bubble team, we definitely are above those teams that are in that realm as far as those bubble teams. Playing in your conference championship in the SEC shouldn’t be something that we’re worried about as far as what that would do to our playoff hopes. We got here by earning it.”
Alabama and Georgia are scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. CT Saturday in Atlanta. The game will be aired on ABC.
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