As we head towards the College Football Playoff, the Alabama football program was ranked No. 8 in the rankings this week, with a chance to get in if the Crimson Tide perform well the rest of the way, and Nick Saban got real about where his team stands in the rankings.

“Well I kind of agree with AJ (Hawk) on this one,” Nick Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show. “It really matters where you end up at the end in the last poll if you can get in the top four. Well the only way you can get in the top four is to play every game that you have remaining to the best of your ability, and the best way to do that is focus on the things you need to do every day in practice to create the right habits, techniques, whatever you want to call it so when you in the game you're not thinking about it, you're just out there playing hard and executing and doing what you need to do to help your team win. I think that's the most important thing to do at this stage in the season. So does the poll matter? Yeah it matters, but it doesn't matter until the end. So wherever you're ranked now does not really matter. What matters is how do you finish, and how do you finish the season, and that comes one play at a time.”

Saban's Alabama football program is 7-1, with a loss against Texas from early on this season. The Alabama football program is still in contention to get to the SEC championship and win it with games against No. 13 LSU, Kentucky, Chattanooga and Auburn remaining this season. That is the route that Saban's team will likely have to take to get into the College Football Playoff this year

It will be worth monitoring how Alabama football plays in the final four games against LSU, Kentucky, Chattanooga and Auburn, as well as a potential SEC championship game.