Alabama, Clemson upsets will make history for College Football Playoff rankings

It has been a while since Alabama and Clemson were not top-four teams in a College Football Playoff rankings.

We need to prepare ourselves to live in a world where Alabama and Clemson are probably not going to make the College Football Playoff.

Since the postseason format’s inception during the 2014 college season, the Crimson Tide or the Tigers have made the four-team field every season. Alabama has made it in every year except for 2019, while Clemson missed out on the playoff in 2014 and last season. Given that they have won five of the first eight College Football Playoff National Championships, you can say this is historic.

Even crazier, Tuesday will be the first time since Nov. 11, 2014 that Alabama and Clemson will not be in the top four. That was the third-ever set of College Football Playoff rankings. Dak Prescott was in his junior season at Mississippi State, Joey Bosa and Ezekiel Elliott played for Urban Meyer’s Ohio State Buckeyes and Marcus Mariota had not yet won the Heisman Trophy.

And to be totally honest, there is a chance neither Alabama nor Clemson cracks the top 10…

The Crimson Tide are No. 10 in the latest AP Top 25 Poll, while the Tigers stumbled to No. 12.

Alabama, Clemson could be making bad College Football Playoff rankings history

While there is still a chance for the one-loss Tigers to still make the four-team field after Championship Saturday, it is not in the cards for the two-loss Crimson Tide. Clemson has not suffered a loss in ACC play. If the Tigers get to Charlotte and take down North Carolina, whose only loss on the season was to Notre Dame as well, that might be enough to shoehorn the Tigers in.

As far as the Crimson Tide are concerned, they need LSU to implode and they also need to win out, which would include what seems like an improbable neutral-site victory over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, so good luck with that. No doubt about it, this is the worst season for the Crimson Tide since the infamous 2010 campaign when Auburn went undefeated and won it all.

Overall, this is probably good for the sport. While College Football Playoff expansion is coming in an olympiad or so, having some fresher faces in the mix can’t hurt. Then again, Georgia is probably getting in, as is the winner of The Game between Michigan at Ohio State. However, the Pac-12 might get a team in for the first time since 2016 and TCU could be getting in for the first time ever.

Ultimately, what we are seeing is the beginning of the end for these two concurrent dynasties.

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