Did Alabama just become a playoff team? Rivalry Week chaos strikes

Rivalry week chaos has us completely going insane.

The 2024 college football season has been as entertaining as any and one of the major reasons for this is the 12-team College Football Playoff. The playoff has made games that used to not matter in the national landscape matter again. The playoff has made teams that would've been out have more chances to get to the postseason.

And now here we are.

The Alabama Crimson Tide took care of their own business in the Iron Bowl this past weekend, beating Auburn 28-14. The Crimson Tide — ranked No. 13 in the latest CFP Rankings — are now primed to jump in the rankings after a loss by Clemson to in-state rival South Carolina, and we'll be waiting to see how other chaos — such as Miami's loss to Syracuse — affects the Tide's ranking, as well.

The elephant in the room — pun intended — is if the Crimson Tide can somehow still backdoor their way into the College Football Playoff with a 9-3 overall record.

Right now, here's the breakdown of teams that have a chance to get into the College Football Playoff:

• Big Ten champion: Oregon vs. Penn State
• SEC champion: Georgia vs. Texas/Texas A&M (at the time of this writing)
• ACC champion: SMU vs. Clemson
• Big 12 champion: TBD
• Group of 5 bid: Boise State vs. UNLV

Once you get past the five conference championship games, we've got a group of teams that will be fighting for at-large bids. Ohio State is likely still in with a 10-2 record. Indiana is also likely in with an 11-1 record. In the SEC, Tennessee essentially clinched its bid with a win over Vanderbilt on Saturday. In the ACC, the question becomes if Miami can still get an at-large bid. In addition, what about SMU if they were to lose to Clemson next weekend?

Let's play this out as straightforward as possible, though, assuming that favorites win the conference title games next weekend, making a lot of assumptions.

• Big Ten: Oregon, Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana
• SEC: Georgia, Texas, Tennessee
• ACC: SMU
• Big 12: Arizona State
• Group of Five: Boise State
• Notre Dame

With these assumptions, there would be a total of 11 teams in the field. The committee would then have to decide between 10-2 Miami, 9-3 Alabama, 9-3 South Carolina, and 9-3 Ole Miss for that final spot.

Does the committee value a head-to-head win over South Carolina enough to keep Alabama ahead of the Gamecocks? Or do they value South Carolina's road win over Clemson enough to give them that bid? Would the committee value any of those three-loss teams from the SEC over two-loss Miami? That remains to be seen.

Right now, it seems that there is one spot remaining and it will likely come down to two-loss Miami, as well as the group of three-loss SEC teams, including Alabama. If a Clemson or Texas A&M — should the Aggies pull off an upset over Texas tonight — were to win a conference title, that would be a bid stealer and likely put Alabama's hopes to bed.

Alabama's chances aren't dead, but you can see the challenge they face in somehow backdooring into the field. It's all in the committee's hands, but right now, we'd say that it's not impossible, but it's also not likely that Alabama is in the field.

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