Alabama takes final at-large bid in penultimate College Football Playoff bracket
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It’s not official just yet but Tuesday night gave us a pretty good insight on what the College Football Playoff committee thinks about Alabama’s complete resume after the regular season.
After winning its fifth consecutive Iron Bowl, the Crimson Tide finished the regular season with a 9-3 record. The team moved up two spots in the CFP rankings to #11, good enough to currently hold the final spot in the new 12-team bracket.
Keep reading to see exactly what that ranking means for Alabama’s playoff hopes + which games this weekend could have an impact on the team’s spot in the 12-team field.
Alabama is in… for now
The 12-team playoff will feature five automatic bids to the highest ranked conference champions with four of them receiving a bye. Those spots will officially be secured this weekend but for now, the bracket gives those automatic bids to the highest ranked team from five conferences.
The remaining seven spots are filled by at-large bids—or more simply, the seven highest ranked teams that are not conference champions. That’s where the Crimson Tide could get in.
The playoff based on this week’s rankings would be seeded like this:
- Oregon
- Texas
- SMU
- Boise State
- Penn State
- Notre Dame
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Tennessee
- Indiana
- Alabama
- Arizona State
If this was the final bracket, the Crimson Tide would travel to Indiana to play Notre Dame in the first round of the playoff.
“What it really came down to is Alabama is 3-1 against current Top 25 teams and Miami is 0-1. Alabama is 6-1 against teams above .500… for us, in evaluating their body of work, we felt like Alabama had the edge over Miami.”
~ Warde Manuel, CFP Selection Committee on ESPN
Championship week
One game is expected to have the biggest impact on Alabama’s standing and that is the ACC Championship Game.
If Clemson beats SMU, the Tigers would likely secure an automatic bid to the playoff while the Mustangs could still get an at-large bid with an 11-2 record. That could take away a potential at-large bid for Alabama. A UNLV win over Boise State could also take away one of those at-large bids.
The Big 12 title game could also impact Alabama’s seeding with Arizona State and Iowa State facing off. The winner could potentially jump Alabama in the rankings, pushing the Crimson Tide down to the 12th seed.
There is also a small chance the SEC title game could impact Alabama’s seeding. If Texas defeats Georgia, Alabama could have an argument to jump a 3-loss Bulldogs team that it defeated head-to-head on the field.
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