CFP committee is already rationalizing putting Alabama in if Clemson beats SMU
No matter how hard Alabama tries, the College Football Playoff committee just can't quit the Crimson Tide. Only two weeks ago, Kalen DeBoer's team was getting embarrassed by a mediocre Oklahoma team, scoring just three points en route to their third loss of the season. And yet, when the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday night, Bama was ... the biggest winner of the night?
Yes, you read that right. Despite sitting on three losses, and despite falling short of the SEC Championship Game this weekend, the Tide can sit at home Saturday secure in the knowledge that their spot in the 12-team field is already basically wrapped up. And that spot could well come at the expense of SMU — a team with one fewer loss, just because they earned the right to actually play for their conference championship.
College Football Playoff rankings ahead of conference championship games
Before we get into it, here are the full rankings unveiled on Tuesday.
- Oregon Ducks
- Texas Longhorns
- Penn State Nittany Lions
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Tennessee Volunteers
- SMU Mustangs
- Indiana Hoosiers
- Boise State Broncos
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Miami Hurricanes
- Ole Miss Rebels
- South Carolina Gamecocks
- Arizona State Sun Devils
- Iowa State Cyclones
- Clemson Tigers
- BYU Cougars
- Missouri Tigers
- UNLV Rebels
- Illinois Fighting Illini
- Syracuse Orange
- Colorado Buffaloes
- Army Black Knights
- Memphis Tigers
SMU could fall victim to College Football Playoff committee's obsession with Alabama
Most of the field is just about settled already. The Big Ten's big four (Oregon, Penn State, Ohio State and Indiana) are more or less locked in, with Oregon and Penn State playing in the conference title game on Saturday and Ohio State and Indiana incapable of falling any further than sixth and ninth, respectively. Notre Dame is set, as are the top three SEC teams: Texas and Georgia, set to collide in Atlanta with a conference title and first-round CFP bye on the line, and Tennessee, all the way up to seventh in the rankings. Add in auto bids from the ACC, Big 12 and Group of 5, and that's 11 of 12 spots accounted for before we even play a snap of conference championship week football.
But that 12th spot could leave one fan base very, very upset. Alabama isn't just the highest-ranked three-loss team in the country; they're ahead of four different two-loss Power 4 teams in Miami, Arizona State, Iowa State and BYU. And that could well jump to five after this weekend: If SMU should fall to Clemson in the ACC title game, the Tide are high enough that the Mustangs would likely fall behind Alabama in the at-large pecking order — for no other reason than playing well enough to earn the right to play for a conference championship.
There is precedent for teams to rise or fall based on the result of a conference title game. Ohio State jumping TCU in 2014 is the obvious example, but just two years ago, USC got blasted in the Pac-12 title game and allowed the Buckeyes to leapfrog them into the No. 4 spot. What the committee is getting set to do to SMU in the event of a Mustangs loss, however, would be downright criminal. Rhett Lashlee's team has just one loss, by two points to a top-20 BYU team before SMU had even settled on starting quarterback Kevin Jennings. Other than that, they've sailed through their (admittedly soft) ACC schedule, earning the right to go play for a conference championship in Charlotte.
And now, because of that, they could also wind up out in the cold when all is said and done? Why should SMU be punished because they earned the chance to play an extra game, something Alabama wasn't able to do in the SEC? Would a close loss to a ranked team in Clemson really tell us that much more about the Mustangs as a team, or make them any less worthy than they would be if they were off this weekend and could just sit at home with one loss? Strength of schedule is a thing, and should be taken into consideration. But Alabama had its chance, and it lost three games. SMU has taken care of business, and it might get punished as a result.
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