Alabama at No. 4 in initial College Football Playoff rankings
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Two months ago, Alabama fans would have been thrilled to see the Crimson Tide appear anywhere close to the top 12 in the first College Football Playoff Rankings of the year.
But after reeling off seven consecutive wins including a 5-0 start in SEC play, Alabama has made a jump up the rankings—back to where fans are used to seeing the team.
The Crimson Tide came in at No. 4 in the season’s initial College Football Playoff rankings. As it stands, the playoff field would include:
- Ohio State
- Indiana
- Texas A&M
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Ole Miss
- BYU
- Texas Tech
- Oregon
- Notre Dame
- Virginia
- Memphis
If the season ended today, Alabama would get a bye into the quarterfinals before taking on the winner of the first round matchup between Georgia and Memphis.
CFP Top 25
According to the CFP guidelines, the selection committee ranks the teams based on “the teams’ performance on the field, using conference championships won, strength of schedule, head-to-head results and comparison of results against common opponents to decide among teams that are comparable.”
That strength of schedule clearing carries plenty of weight which is why much of the top 25 belongs to the SEC and Big Ten.
Alabama is the highest-ranked one-loss team because of its resume which includes four wins against teams ranked in the top 25. Ohio State is the only other team with at least three ranked wins.
The Crimson Tide’s remaining regular season schedule includes just one more team currently in the CFP rankings—No. 12 Oklahoma.
Alabama in CFP rankings
While this is just the second year of the 12-team playoff, the first CFP rankings were introduced in 2014.
In that span, Alabama has started in the top four now eight times. Here’s where the Tide ranked in each year’s initial rankings + whether they eventually made the playoff or not:
- 2014: 6th – Yes
- 2015: 4th – Yes
- 2016: 1st – Yes
- 2017: 2nd – Yes
- 2018: 1st – Yes
- 2019: 3rd – No
- 2020: 1st – Yes
- 2021: 2nd – Yes
- 2022: 6th – No
- 2023: 8th – Yes
- 2024: 11th – No
Auburn has not been ranked in the College Football Rankings poll since Week 10 in 2021. The Tigers have been ranked in the first rankings of a season six times, as high as third in 2014, but they have not yet made an appearance in the playoff.
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