The debate never ends in the College Football Playoff realm, and there's more for fans to talk about following the latest release of the CFP rankings ahead of conference championship weekend. Among those that have sparked lots of reactions was the switch in positions involving the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Both Alabama football and the Fighting Irish won last Saturday, but the Crimson Tide moved up from No. 10 to No. 9, while Notre Dame went from No. 9 to No. 10.
Speaking about Alabama jumping Notre Dame in the rankings, CFP chair Hunter Yurachek tried to shed some light on the matter.
“The debate between Alabama and Notre Dame over the last three weeks has been one of the strongest debates … Alabama went on the road in a rivalry game, looked good, especially in the first half
“I will tell you the debate between Alabama and Notre Dame over the past three weeks has been one of the strongest debates we've had in the room for the past two years that I've been a member of the committee,” Yurachek said (h/t Jordan Sigler of Newsweek). “Notre Dame went on the road, had a strong win at Stanford.
“But Alabama went on the road, and in a rivalry game looked really good, especially in the first half, getting up 17 to nothing. Ran the ball well. Auburn came back at them. (Alabama) had a great gutsy call on 4th-and-2 late in the third quarter to get a touchdown, and then got the turnover late in that game. And I think that was enough to change the minds of a couple of committee members to push Alabama up ahead of Notre Dame in this week's rankings.”
Alabama football struggled to finish off the Tigers in the Iron Bowl, with Auburn tying the score at 20-20 in the fourth quarter after falling behind by 17 points in the first half. But Ty Simpson's touchdown pass to Isaiah Horton gave the Crimson Tide the go-ahead score as Kalen DeBoer's team held on for the victory.
For the Fighting Irish, who beat the Stanford Cardinal on the road over the weekend, 49-20, they will have to hope that Alabama suffers a loss to the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship game.
