The real reason why the College Football Playoff committee has the Alabama Crimson Tide ahead of Tennessee in latest rankings
Alabama at No. 3, Texas at No. 6, and Tennessee at No. 8 all sit at 7-2, and the College Football Playoff committee’s order says plenty about how it weighs the whole resume.
A week after the College Football Playoff Committee created a ton of discourse by placing the Alabama Crimson Tide at 5 in the initial rankings, the committee doubled down and put Alabama two spots higher, with the Tide coming in at No.3 in this week’s rankings.
For the most part, people aren’t as upset, but the Vols fans have made their case that they deserve to be ahead of Alabama after the thumping Tennessee put on the Tide in Neyland Stadium. But using different metrics and the A to Z Sports College Football Playoff Predictor, Travis May, Austin Stanley, and Ryan Roberts broke down why Alabama is ahead of Tennessee in the CFP rankings.
Why the CFP committee has Alabama ahead of Tennessee
Travis May kicked off the conversation on the show, and he likes the committee giving credit to teams with brutal schedules. Alabama’s slate is basically the toughest in the country. Even ESPN’s own strength of schedule system ranks the Crimson Tide’s schedule No. 1.
Travis also pointed out that what you’ve done against other playoff teams seems to matter a lot to this committee. Bama’s loss came to Tennessee, in Knoxville, against a team that’s in the field.
He took it a step further, too. Travis thinks the committee is hedging ahead of time. With Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee all at 7-2, one of them is probably finishing 9-3, and the current positioning basically guarantees a three-loss SEC team gets in.
Ryan Roberts agreed, and so did Austin Stanley. A three-loss SEC team in the 12-team field feels like a foregone conclusion at this point.
On Texas, the complete resume does the talking. The Longhorns beat Ohio State back when Ohio State was still Ohio State (it isn’t now). Tennessee, meanwhile, survived a ridiculously hard schedule despite some instability at quarterback.
So yes, the order makes sense on paper. It’s just hard pill to swallow for some Vols fans when Tennessee beat Alabama head-to-head. The committee has told us for two weeks now that the full resume matters immensely, and nine games outweigh the one in Knoxville.
Ryan Roberts wants to go back to computers because the subjectivity drives him nuts. You can like Alabama’s resume a little more and still say, “But Tennessee beat them.” Both things are true at the same time, and that’s what makes this so murky.
