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If the College Football Playoff Selection was inclined to pull back the curtain an inch or two and allow some insight into what it might be thinking, Tuesday night was not the time.

After a weekend in which Alabama fans felt their world flip upside down after a season-ending injury to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, the CFP rankings were a quiet harbor for the status quo. The Crimson Tide remained at No. 5 in the latest rankings and, barring some further unforeseen calamity for Alabama (or someone else), will be there again next Tuesday.

That’s probably less reflective of any deep committee thoughts about a Tide Without Tua and more of a recognition that there’s no need to do that sort of heavy lifting before Alabama faces Auburn in two weeks.

Normally, rankings at this point in the year don’t merit a column full of analysis. Think of the thousands and thousands of words written and tears shed about Minnesota and Baylor being “disrespected” last week, only to have those two teams proceed to do what many observers (and Las Vegas) anticipated: lose.

This week wound have been a bit different had the committee tipped its hand about its Tua thinking. Instead, there really hasn’t been much change.

The top four — LSU, Ohio State, Clemson and Georgia — are all in the “win-and-in” category. I have found that if you phrase that as “control their own destiny,” hordes of online Calvinists descend upon with the fury of digital-age Cotton Mathers.

Everyone else is going to need something. Either LSU or Georgia will inevitably lose in the SEC Championship Game. All the other hopefuls will pull for LSU, who would probably get in despite a loss. Ohio State has tough games left. Everyone might as well concede a spot to Clemson, which has cleverly figured out that you can’t lose to a top 25 team if you don’t play any top 25 teams.

There is a strong national opinion that Alabama has a lot still to overcome and needs the most help. First, while there was no indication of a Tua factor at play Tuesday, it has to be percolating in the back of some committee members’ minds. At the risk of angering someone, I’m not going to explore the unthinkable option of a misstep against Western Carolina.

Second, and this is harder to quantify, but a combination of factors — the loss to LSU, the hip injury to Tua, the quality of schedule that Alabama partly controls (the SEC part depends on rotation) — this might be the “time” to pass over the Crimson Tide for someone from some other league.

That’s not a conspiracy theory. The CFP Selection Committee has been fair to Alabama since its inception. I’m not going to scream “unfair” at this juncture. Too many variables are unsettled and it’s a narrow window for Alabama to squeeze through right now.

So the No. 5 ranking this week is little comfort, even if it looks promising. Alabama will have to state its case at Auburn — not an easy place to do so — and hope that it’s enough.
 
Well...this might be the year the stupid f'ing weak non conference shit bites us...Duke...instead of a marquee name and power....and othe Sun belt and c-usa
teams....or wherever they came from...
Keep scheduling this shit and it will happen again..
 
Well...this might be the year the stupid f'ing weak non conference shit bites us...Duke...instead of a marquee name and power....and othe Sun belt and c-usa
teams....or wherever they came from...
Keep scheduling this shit and it will happen again..
Again. Alabama did not schedule Duke. It was an agreement with the group in ATL to play an ACC opponent.

This year it's no different than Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State (among others) having a bad season this year: circumstances beyond UA's control.

Outside of Clemson any game Bama would have played would be criticized. The first team intended to take on the Tide was Miami. They (UA) were left with Duke. If you look at the ACC you'll notice the limited number of teams that were available (who are at the top of the conference this season.)

Virginia, ranked 2nd in the ACC right now, opened with a conference game.
Pitt (T-3rd) played VA.
Louisville opened in conference with Notre Dame.
Va Tech opened with Boston College.
Clemson opened in conference with Ga. Tech.
Miami, who they thought they were going to play at first, went with Florida.

Do you think Cuse, NC State, or GT would have made the narrative you read any different?

You want to blame someone? Blame the ACC for their conference schedule and teams running away from playing UA. The game in ATL was set before their conference schedule.

I know this stuff has been pointed out to you at least a half of a dozen times. I don't why you're having a hard time grasping the story. 🤷‍♂️
 
Well...this might be the year the stupid f'ing weak non conference shit bites us...Duke...instead of a marquee name and power....and othe Sun belt and c-usa
teams....or wherever they came from...
Keep scheduling this shit and it will happen again..
I know people love harping and bitching about the schedule non stop like Alabama waits until July to schedule that year’s games and all.

This is actually the year where the loss to LSU hurts us more than whatever schedule gripes people have. Had we beat LSU we wouldn’t be 5th
 
I know people love harping and bitching about the schedule non stop like Alabama waits until July to schedule that year’s games and all.

This is actually the year where the loss to LSU hurts us more than whatever schedule gripes people have. Had we beat LSU we wouldn’t be 5th
Uga has ND....bama ha Duke...thats why we r 5th

And if u think its summer when scheduled...go and look at bama future schedules...
South Florida
Kent state
Others loaded on schedule
 
I know people love harping and bitching about the schedule non stop like Alabama waits until July to schedule that year’s games and all.

This is actually the year where the loss to LSU hurts us more than whatever schedule gripes people have. Had we beat LSU we wouldn’t be 5th

A loss to the #1 team didn't hurt us any more than our schedule. All you have to do is look at Georgia who lost to a much worse team than us but also had Notre Dame on their schedule. The East is a joke, but seeing Duke and Notre Dame regardless of Notre Dame's record is/has/will hurt us. One undefeated season under Saban and you're saying the loss hurt us more? Well we've lost before but had a marque opponent save us. The loss did not hurt us as much as seeing Duke, Western Csrolina, and others. You replace Duke with Missouri, Florida, or even Vanderbilt and the outlook on our schedule is not near as bad. All about the name.
 
A loss to the #1 team didn't hurt us any more than our schedule. All you have to do is look at Georgia who lost to a much worse team than us but also had Notre Dame on their schedule. The East is a joke, but seeing Duke and Notre Dame regardless of Notre Dame's record is/has/will hurt us. One undefeated season under Saban and you're saying the loss hurt us more? Well we've lost before but had a marque opponent save us. The loss did not hurt us as much as seeing Duke, Western Csrolina, and others. You replace Duke with Missouri, Florida, or even Vanderbilt and the outlook on our schedule is not near as bad. All about the name.
If we beat LSU we’re undefeated which puts us ahead of UGA. People can point to any schedule they want, but Bama goes undefeated they’re in the playoff case closed
 
If we beat LSU we’re undefeated which puts us ahead of UGA. People can point to any schedule they want, but Bama goes undefeated they’re in the playoff case closed

If Ifs and Buts were candy and nuts...

That game is behind us and hindsight has no room in the arguement. You have to state a case on the results we have now. Being undefeated has happened once under Saban, so for everyone to think we go undefeated every year has another thing coming.
 
I don't see any undefeated team that has played anybody that was a tough challenge to them except LSWho. Even that game was suspect because we beat ourselves more than they beat us. You can say we haven't played anybody but you can't say if we did we would get beat. Our backup quarterback has more playing time than most other teams, so it is hard to compare our ability to other teams, because we play our backup players. more.
That being said, I like our chances to beat Auburn and if we get to number 4, playing LSWho again could be a very different outcome.
 
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