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When the College Football Playoff selection committee released its penultimate set of rankings on Tuesday night, Alabama's placement sent fans into an uproar. The Crimson Tide came in ahead of Miami, with the Hurricanes being the first team out of the field.
In an appearance on ESPN, committee chair Warde Manuel explained exactly why.
“Obviously we think highly of both teams, one’s at 11, one’s at 12, but what it really came down to is Alabama is 3-1 against current top 25 teams and Miami is 0-1,” he said. “Alabama is 6-1 against teams above .500 and Miami is 4-2. Both have had some losses that weren’t what they wanted out of those games but in the last three games, Miami has lost twice, and so for us in evaluating their body of work, we felt that Alabama got the edge over Miami.”
On its own, Manuel's logic seems fair. The committee has made it no secret that success against other quality teams is a significant factor in its ranking process, and the Crimson Tide have the edge there. On the other hand, Miami was ranked sixth last week and Alabama 13th. The Hurricanes plummeted six spots after losing by four on the road against a ranked Syracuse team, while Alabama handled a sub-.500 Auburn team in college football's Iron Bowl. Manuel was citing Alabama's record against above-.500 teams, but it had the exact same record a week ago.
It's a drastic change and it now puts a three-loss team in the driver's seat for a playoff bid. Alabama did not qualify for the SEC title game, so its body of work is now complete. Miami will face SMU in the ACC championship game, giving the Hurricanes a chance to put one more quality win on their resume.
Manuel also confirmed that the committee will not re-evaluate teams not playing in their conference title games next week. That means in order for Miami to earn its way back into the field, another team playing this weekend will have to lose and fall out of consideration.
