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Bama News
Alabama remained at No. 5 in Tuesday's edition of the College Football Playoff rankings for Week 13, but do the Crimson Tide still have a chance to crack the top four?
With two games left against FCS Western Carolina (3-8, 2-6 SoCon) and No. 15 Auburn (7-3, 4-3) for an 11-1 finish on the regular season, Alabama needs some help.
But why did the Tide stay in fifth, despite wins by No. 6 Oregon (9-1, 7-0 Pac-12), No. 7 Utah (9-1, 6-1 Pac-12) and No. 9 Oklahoma (9-1, 6-1 Big 12) behind one of the three SEC teams in the top five?
"I think what logical minds thought, objective minds thought, what you would see," said Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN analyst, on Tuesday. "I don't think it's fair to necessarily punish 'Bama for the (season-ending hip) injury to (junior quarterback) Tua (Tagovailoa). I think you have to sit and wait to see how they perform in their game against Auburn. I personally felt, whether with Tua or without Tua, Alabama eventually, after the final games are played, would be on the outside looking in. I don't think this that 'Bama team that you just say on the eye test, 'Oh, they're much better than everybody else.' Even with Tua, I felt that, because of how young they are on defense without (junior linebacker) Dylan Moses, they just don't feel that way and they don't have the resume. So I think they're going to sit there ā what did you call it, just a placeholder ā kind of just sitting there for now and I think, eventually, you're going to see an opening and I think that's where the Pac-12 champ, if they both get there at 11-1, I think the poll position to go by Georgia if they lose to LSU, by Alabama is the winner of the Oregon and Utah game on that Friday night (Pac-12 Championship Game Dec. 6)."
ESPN analyst Jesse Palmer echoed Herbstreit's sentiments, but added an interesting twist as Alabama head coach Nick Saban leads the Tide into the final two games.
"It's the right place to have Alabama right now at No. 5 because the committee's job is not to project and look forward ā you evaluate Alabama on what they've done up to this point of the season," Palmer said. "So now they're sitting at No. 5 and they're trying to build their case right now against Oregon and Utah and someone from the Big 12 as well. They have to convince the committee that they're a top-four team by the end of the year ā unequivocally. It was going to be very hard to do that without a conference championship. If LSU wins that week, that's done for Alabama.
"So now that game at Auburn, that's the big audition with (sophomore quarterback) Mac Jones ā and they need to win that game convincingly. To me, they need a result like Ohio State had back in 2014 (Big Ten Championship Game) with Cardale (Jones) ... that 59-0 win (over Wisconsin), that was such as statement that the committee could not ignore. Alabama needs a result like that with Mac Jones against Auburn who, right now, only fell three spots with a three-loss team. The committee respects Auburn. Alabama needs that with Mac Jones to have any shot."
