Alabama football must pay for its issues in Week 13 CFP rankings

When Alabama football fans are even doubting their team’s top-four worthiness, you know you got a big problem. The question comes in at why the College Football Playoff committee is still trying its hardest to ignore it?

First of all, let’s make one thing absolutely clear: Arkansas is a solid squad this year (they entered Tuscaloosa ranked for a reason). With that in mind, Alabama winning is enough by itself to earn a thumbs-up, regardless of how narrow the win was.

However, no one can pretend that hosting the Razorbacks is the hardest thing in the world to do; most ranked teams could at least compete with them under those circumstances. So the Crimson Tide, of all teams, winning by a single touchdown in a 42-35 shootout is certainly alarming.

But hey, Bama plays in the high-and-mighty SEC, so they should be given a pass for struggling with a ranked divisional foe just this once, right? Such an argument could normally be made, but Arkansas is merely the latest addition to a list of inferior teams that the Tide have failed to look like themselves against.

Before this last Saturday, Alabama had already: Beaten Florida by two, struggled with Tennessee over the course of three quarters, and hung on to beat LSU by six. Keep in mind that the second and third games were played at home.

The best team of that trio (at least in regards to current record) is Tennessee, who sits with a hideous 6-5. And remember, they’re the best of the three.

That’s not a pretty batch of performances, and that’s without even mentioning the game that the Crimson Tide actually lost when facing a three-loss Texas A&M.

I’m all for acknowledging the power of the Southeastern Conference; the league is bigger and tougher than any other in the sport, that is true. However, that does not mean that you are allowed to skate by losses when you’re hosting teams that are currently praying to make a bowl game.

In just about every single season under Nick Saban, Alabama has been one of the top teams — if not the top team — in recruiting talent. Oh, and that Saban guy? He’s the greatest college football head coach to ever grace Earth.

The Crimson Tide have set the bar so high, in fact, that some of their viewers have gone as far as to question whether or not they could beat an NFL team. You can’t go from that level of praise to where we are now without at least some degree of punitive action.

Now I would be addressing Alabama’s weaknesses regardless of how surrounding teams had performed this last weekend, but especially when fourth-ranked Ohio State assaulted seventh-ranked Michigan State, 56-7. The committee can’t just blindly give the No. 2 spot to Alabama anymore. With that steep of contrast in gameplay, something has to change.

Obviously, the Tide shouldn’t plummet; they’re 10-1, while playing in the toughest conference, and they’re coming off of another ranked win. But they have arguably failed to look like the 2nd-best team in the country for weeks now, and they definitely don’t look like it today.

It’s not the end of the world, though. The Buckeyes merely look more worthy of being number two, while Alabama is the most deserving of being number three now that Oregon is out of the way. If the committee switches them around, the chances of people seeing something wrong with the playoff picture will be as slim as possible.