Did Alabama just become a playoff team? In the week of the rivalry, chaos reigns

The chaos of rivalry week is driving us absolutely crazy.

The 2024 college football season has been as entertaining as any, and one of the main reasons for that is the 12-team College Football Playoff. The playoffs have made games that once played no role in the national landscape important again. The playoffs give teams that would have been eliminated more chances to make the postseason.

And now we are here.

The Alabama Crimson Tide minded their own business in the Iron Bowl last weekend, defeating Auburn 28-14. The Crimson Tide – ranked No. 13 in the latest CFP rankings – are now poised to move up in the rankings following Clemson’s loss to in-state rival South Carolina, and we’ll wait to see how more chaos – like the one in Miami – will unfold Loss to Syracuse – also affects the Tide’s rankings.

The elephant in the room – pun intended – is whether the Crimson Tide, with a 9-3 overall record, can somehow still get into the College Football Playoff through the back door.

For now, here is the breakdown of teams that have a chance of making the College Football Playoff:

Once you get past the five conference championship games, we have a group of teams that will be competing for at-large bids. Ohio State is probably still in the mix with a 10-2 record. Indiana should also be there with a record of 11-1. In the SEC, Tennessee essentially secured its bid with a win over Vanderbilt on Saturday. In the ACC, the question is whether Miami can still receive an overall offer. And what about SMU if they lost to Clemson next weekend?

However, let’s play this out as simply as possible by assuming the favorites win the conference title games next weekend and making a lot of assumptions along the way.

Under these assumptions there would be a total of 11 teams in the field. The committee would then have to decide between 10-2 Miami, 9-3 Alabama, 9-3 South Carolina and 9-3 Ole Miss for the final spot.

Does the committee value a straight win over South Carolina enough to keep Alabama ahead of the Gamecocks? Or do they value South Carolina’s road win over Clemson enough to give them that offer? Would the committee rate any of these three-loss SEC teams higher than two-loss Miami? That remains to be seen.

Right now it looks like there is one spot left, and it will likely come down to two-loss Miami as well as the group of three-loss SEC teams, including Alabama. If Clemson or Texas A&M – should the Aggies pull off an upset against Texas tonight – won a conference title, it would be a bid-stealer and would likely dash Alabama’s hopes.

Alabama’s chances aren’t bad, but you can see the challenge they face by somehow getting into the field through the back door. It’s all in the hands of the committee, but right now we’d say it’s not impossible, but it’s also unlikely that Alabama will be there.