CFP Rankings: Can Miami, South Carolina and Ole Miss still overtake Alabama? What the CFP Chairman said

Nothing is final yet, but Alabama football is close to the College Football Playoff.

The CFP rankings released Tuesday night fell exactly as the Crimson Tide expected. Alabama moved up to 11th place after winning the Iron Bowl. That means if the season ended today, the Crimson Tide would own the No. 11 seed and travel to South Bend, Indiana, to face Notre Dame.

The most important part of Tuesday’s revelation was that Miami fell to 12th after losing to Syracuse. Additionally, Ole Miss was ranked No. 13 and South Carolina was ranked No. 14.

One of the biggest questions heading into Tuesday night’s rankings was where these four teams would be ranked. Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina are all 9-3 and will not play another game before Selection Day. Miami is now 10-2 but has not picked up a Top 25 win.

It doesn’t sound like the order of these four teams will change no matter what happens in the conference championships this weekend.

“For any team that’s not playing right now, we don’t have a data point to re-rank those teams,” CFP Chairman Warde Manuel said on ESPN. “It depends on how we see them in the final week of championship week. Nothing will change for us if we evaluate them differently than before.

“The teams that are not playing cannot be adjusted compared to other teams that are not playing. But championship teams will evaluate this data point to determine if a move is necessary based on the performance of the game.”