Barring an upset in Saturday’s ACC championship game between Clemson and SMU, Alabama might be headed back to the College Football Playoff for the ninth time in the past 11 seasons.
The Crimson Tide were ranked No. 11 in the CFP selection committee’s penultimate rankings Tuesday, one spot ahead of Miami. The Tide lost three times under first-year coach Kalen DeBoer, including an unsightly 24-3 defeat at Oklahoma on Nov. 23.
The Hurricanes suffered their second defeat of the season Saturday, 42-38 at Syracuse. Miami would be the first team left out of the 12-team playoff based on the current rankings because the fifth-highest-rated conference champion would jump it.
Since neither Alabama nor Miami qualified for their respective conference championship games, it would seem the Hurricanes would have a difficult time jumping the Tide in the final rankings, which will be released by the selection committee Sunday.
CFP selection committee chairman Warde Manuel said on ESPN’s rankings release show Tuesday night that teams not competing in championship games this weekend, including Alabama and Miami, wouldn’t have their rankings changed because they’re not playing another game.
“Any team that is not playing right now, we don’t have a data point to rearrange where we have those teams ranked, and so that is set in terms of how we see them going into the final week of championship week,” Manuel said. “There’s nothing that’s going to change for us to evaluate them any differently than we have now.
“Those teams who are not playing cannot be adjusted in terms of where they are compared to other teams that are not playing, but the championship [game] teams we will evaluate that data point to determine if there needs to be any movement, based on how the performance of the game goes.”
