- Three teams for two spots in CFP bracket. Either Alabama, Notre Dame or Miami must go.
- Georgia left no doubt in this rematch with Alabama. Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs boot stomped the Tide.
- Alabama’s playoff argument will center on strength of schedule that Notre Dame, Miami can’t match.
ATLANTA – Now, the elephant sweats.
With a chance to remove all doubt that it’s a College Football Playoff team, Alabama let doubt multiply like weeds after a thunderstorm.
Alabama could have played its way into the bracket. Now, it’s left to try to talk its way in, after trying its darnedest to play its way out in a pitiful 28-7 loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship game.
One of these teams looked like a playoff team.
The other team looked like a worthy opponent for Michigan in the Citrus Bowl. Alabama hasn’t played like a playoff team since descending from its mid-October peak.
Alabama’s one-dimensional offense downgraded to zero-dimensional on this day. Georgia stomped a hole in its chest.
When Ty Simpson’s fourth-down pass deep inside Alabama territory sailed incomplete to suffocate Alabama’s faint hope, Kalen DeBoer threw his hands onto his head.
Sorry, coach, the Penn State job is filled now.
CFP rejecting Alabama would spur debate on playoff size, format
We can have a spirited debate about the optics or ethics of Notre Dame and Miami benefiting from sitting at home while Alabama strapped it up against one of the nation’s best teams, but this is college football, so what are ethics?
I’m unaware of any playoff rule that says the committee must select a three-loss team that got whipped twice.
There’s two spots for three teams. The committee must decide whether to bounce Alabama, Notre Dame or Miami. Brigham Young, Texas and Vanderbilt would like a word, too, but their words will fall on deaf ears.
Two spots. Three teams.
The committee must play the hand its dealt. It’s not the committee’s fault that it must select a Tulane, which lost to Mississippi by 35 points, or that five-loss Duke retained a shot at an automatic bid, hours before selection day.
If Alabama had just been competitive in this game, that would have buttoned up the Tide’s spot. They weren’t competitive. They were steamrolled.
The “It Just Means More” brigade will howl that there’s no way the SEC’s runner-up should be left out of a 12-team bracket. That would hold merit if we knew Alabama is the conference’s second-best team.
Truth be told, there’s no evidence Alabama is superior to Mississippi or Texas A&M. When it played Oklahoma, it lost at home. Nobody forced the SEC to expand to 16 teams, and Alabama played only half the conference to earn its spot here. The Tide reached this game thanks in part to league tiebreaker rules. Those tiebreakers don’t apply to the CFP.
If the SEC’s runner-up gets rejected from the bracket, that probably assures change is coming to the playoff’s size and format. Change is likely coming, anyway. If this is to be the accelerant, so be it.
While the muckety mucks do their playoff rethinking, spare some brainpower for what should be done with the first weekend in December.
Conference championships were a wonderful data point when the playoff consisted of four teams. At 12 teams, we’d be better served if conference title games were dumped in favor of a 13th game for everyone on the first weekend in December.
I don’t savor the idea of rewarding Notre Dame and Miami for putting their feet up. Dumping conference championship games for a 13th game would remedy that situation.
SEC boss Greg Sankey will holler that a loss to his conference’s champ shouldn’t eliminate Alabama, and he’d be right. A single loss to Georgia shouldn’t eliminate Alabama. But, how about a loss to a bad ACC team? Should that eliminate Alabama, just as Texas’ loss to Florida sinks the Longhorns?
Heavy is the anchor of Alabama’s Week 1 flop to Florida State.
Alabama’s best case vs. Notre Dame, Miami: Strength of schedule
Consider this microcosm of the SEC Championship: Alabama’s first three possessions of the third quarter totaled 7 yards and no first downs. And Alabama’s rushing attack? It produced negative yardage. Lord, have mercy. Georgia showed none.
A shutout would’ve been rocket fuel for the Notre Dame and Miami propaganda campaigns, but Alabama mustered one fourth-quarter score to save a little face.
Since Alabama comfortably beat Tennessee on the Third Saturday in October, the Tide have produced white-knuckle victories against South Carolina and Auburn, two of the SEC’s worst teams. They got a mucky win against LSU. They had a turnover meltdown in a loss to Oklahoma. Now, this.
None of that means Alabama doesn’t have a playoff case. It does. Even after this debacle, I’d think long and hard before booting the Tide, but not because it reached Atlanta. Remember, tiebreakers influenced this spot. I’m unmoved by tiebreakers. The committee shouldn’t be either.
What remains persuasive, though, is that Alabama won as many games as Notre Dame and Miami against a tougher schedule than either of those teams endured.
It’s hard to believe now, but Alabama beat Georgia on the road in September. That trumps Miami’s win against Notre Dame. It’s a much better win than anything on the Irish’s resume, even if the Tide’s FSU loss is more unsightly than anything Alabama’s challengers sustained.
The Tide have a case — but a shaky one, and it’s much more wobbly after Georgia smashed it in the mouth for four quarters, while Notre Dame and Miami polished their talking points.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.