Happy Gump Day, everyone. The College Football Playoff committee kicked off the festivities a few hours early last night, ranking Alabama squarely in contention at 5th. Best of all, Tennessee fans are the angriest about it after falling outside the field at 13.
“Alabama went on the road and beat the team that we have ranked sixth this week in Kentucky,” Yurachek said. “They also beat South Carolina, who’s ranked in the top 25. And then I think many forget that they went on the road and beat Mississippi
State when Mississippi State was undefeated and at full strength.
“We really valued that as a strong win for Alabama back there in the early part of the season when [MSU] was, again, they had that quarterback in Kamario Taylor, who was very good, and Mississippi State was on a roll at that time. We see those as three quality wins.”
Though Alabama lost to Tennessee, Yurachek insisted that the Volunteers have not built a comparable resume.
“Tennessee doesn’t have the same level of quality wins,” Yurachek said. “They do have the win against Alabama, but you have to go a little bit deeper to see Tennessee with another quality win on their schedule.”
There is still so much football to be played. Alabama’s win over Kentucky was the primary driver of their ranking, as Yurachek said that the Tide and Wildcats fell into the same “pod” which brought head to head into play. If Alabama loses to LSU and Tennessee beats Kentucky this weekend, then the Vols will obviously jump up into the field and past Alabama.
But, the committee is clearly allowing some breathing room for a three-loss SEC team to have a chance. To be frank, Indiana is the team that is most “over-ranked.” That squad has looked nothing like a top five team this season and has zero ranked wins. The committee also made it clear that Notre Dame has a must win this weekend against Miami. The Irish have no room for error sitting in the 11 spot, and the rest of their remaining schedule is hot garbage.
Would you like to enjoy some media meltdown over Alabama on this lovely Gump Day? Of course you would.
First, Pat Forde.
For the third time in the last four years, the CFP selection committee seems to be of a mind to overrate the Crimson Tide. Last year, Alabama moved up with a close win over 5–7 Auburn, then didn’t drop after losing the SEC championship game by three touchdowns—those two things resulted in making the 12-team bracket. In 2023, Alabama jumped over undefeated Florida State for the last spot in the last four-team bracket.
And on Tuesday night, the committee administered the Bama back rub yet again. The two-loss Tide are the No. 5 team in the first rankings—ahead of every other SEC team not named Georgia, ahead of undefeated UCLA, ahead of one-loss BYU, Notre Dame and Wake Forest.
This is certainly not how I see the season to date. In my view, Alabama joins the huddled masses of SEC teams yearning to break into the bracket—alongside Mississippi, Tennessee (which beat Bama by 16 points), Missouri and LSU. The Tide aren’t in, and they sure aren’t No. 5 at this point. That’s ridiculous.
Stewie Mandel was a bit more measured.
The overriding theme of the night is that the committee, once again, has seemingly boundless respect for the SEC. Nine of the 10 teams are ranked higher than they are in the AP poll (the other two are the same), none more so than No. 5 Alabama, which is No. 9 in AP.
No matter how far removed we get from the Nick Saban era, the committee loves it some Alabama. The Tide are the highest of the six two-loss SEC teams, eight spots above a Tennessee team that beat them 26-10 not long ago. To be fair, it would be impossible to rank every one of those teams by head-to-head results, but an eight-team gap is wild. Not to mention, 6-2 Bama is higher than an undefeated UCLA team and a 7-1 BYU team with two Top 25 wins (No. 11 Notre Dame and No. 22 Arizona).
And, Nicole Auerbach was tilted.
Head-to-head results mattered quite a bit for some teams, but not at all for others. Alabama — the highest-ranked two-loss team, all the way up at No. 5 — got a great deal of credit for beating one-loss Kentucky. But two-loss Tennessee, which beat Alabama by three scores two weeks ago, found itself eight spots lower than the Tide for some reason.
The committee ranked Notre Dame No. 11 — seven spots lower than the Irish sit in the AP poll — with selection committee chairman Hunter Yurachek claiming that the low ranking was due to Notre Dame’s weak schedule. The Irish do not have a win over any team currently ranked in the committee’s Top 25.
“They don’t have that signature win right now,” Yurachek said.
If you’d like to peruse some angry Tweets, SDS has a compilation for you.
Moving on to Alabama at LSU, Michael Casagrande wonders if Alabama should even show up.
Almost hard to believe the spread is single digits when you add it all up.
With a legally purchased roster, the loudest crowd in the world and the sport’s best coach, how could Alabama even consider competing Saturday?
Kiffin stands on the cusp of greatness.
A career building toward this moment, if you think about it.
At 51, this low lunger has the talent, the budget, and the supporting cast to join the all-time greats.
Guess how old Nick Saban was at the start of his first national championship season.
He was 51.
Coaching LSU.
Mind … blown.
This is quality snark, with several hot yoga references inside.
Alabama players seem locked in, and they will need to be.
Scott was also asked about what he learned about playing in Tennessee’s hostile environment and how the team can use that experience to mitigate mistakes on the road at LSU.
“Try to make it as loud as we can at practice,” the junior receiver said. You know, some sound effects in the background anytime we’re on offense or punt, just try to make things harder in practice so we get to the game. You know, it’s nothing we haven’t seen.”
Offensive lineman Jackson Lloyd was also asked about LSU’s hostile environment and said the team is excited.
“That’s why you come to Alabama at the end of the day, to play in these games and environments. We’re excited for it,” Lloyd said.
The fourth and final player that was there was safety Bray Hubbard who talked about how hungry this Crimson Tide team is.
“We’re starving to be honest with you… This is what we want,” Hubbard said. “Backs against the wall, and we’re just ready to go.”
Last, college football television ratings this year are down overall, but people are still showing up for the big games.
So far this season, audiences are still turning out in droves for top-10 matchups. There have been five, and they’re up 6.4 percent. The cracks begin showing up after that, though, particularly in games involving fringe Playoff contenders.
For example, 10 games in which a top-10 team faced teams ranked No. 11-25 are down 12.2 percent. And in 25 games featuring a team ranked No. 11-15 vs. anyone in the same tier or below, the audiences are down 22.7 percent.
The voices behind the 24-team Playoff say they’re doing so in large part to generate more interest in those late-season games involving the teams in the lower half of the rankings. So far this year, though, audiences are saying that even at 12 teams, they’re much more interested in watching legit national title contenders than perceived CFP bubble teams.
Perhaps that changes once the first committee rankings come out Tuesday.
This gives some merit to the idea that a few top programs would be better off financially forming their own superleague. Like it or not, it’s the casual fan who drives the advertising dollars.
That’s about it for now. Have a great day.
Roll Tide.
