Oregon’s loss opens door to 2-loss Alabama making College Football Playoff

With Oregon falling to Utah on Saturday, a two-loss Alabama team has a chance of making the College Football Playoff. 

A week after the College Football Playoff rankings remained the same, we have some shakeup. The Oregon Ducks, who lost to Stanford in overtime earlier this year, could ill-afford to lose another game in the regular-season. Unfortunately for them, they ran into an Utah team that was on a mission to hand them their second loss of the year. And they did just that, defeating them 38-7 on Saturday.

With the Ducks now 9-2 on the season, they are no doubt going to be out of the College Football Playoff. While this allows a team like undefeated Cincinnati to clinch a spot, it also opens the door for a two-loss Alabama Crimson Tide team to make the Playoff.

Oregon loss opens the door for two-loss Alabama to make the Playoff

Let’s begin by saying that this Alabama team is far from the dominant squad that coasted their way to a National Championship win last year. They narrowly defeated Florida, lost to Texas A&M in the final seconds and had to fight hard for a win over Arkansas this weekend.

Alabama is slated to face the undefeated Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC championship game on Dec. 4. If the Crimson Tide were to lose, that would hypothetically be their second defeat of the season. But that is not exactly the final nail in the coffin for their playoff chances.

Before you bring up that Alabama was not selected in the College Football Playoff in 2019 after finishing the regular-season 10-2, that was because of there were dominant teams that qualified. Of course, those teams were undefeated LSU, Ohio State and Clemson, and the 12-1 Oklahoma Sooners.

But with this season, there is much more leeway for a two-loss team to make it. Besides Georgia, the Cincinnati Bearcats have yet to lose a game and they are ranked high by the committee. So, they will likely make it as long as they win out the remainder of the season. Then, there is the potential that one spot will go to either Ohio State or Michigan, depending on who wins the huge rivalry game next weekend. Those are three spots taken, and a two-loss Alabama team could make it.

Of course, that can only happen as long as the Crimson Tide do not suffer a huge scare against the Auburn Tigers in the Iron Bowl. If Alabama were to lose to Auburn and Georgia to close out the season, then there would be no way the Crimson Tide make it into college football’s Final Four.

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