A blowout loss to an unranked team — serving as the third loss the season — would be enough to eliminate just about any team from the College Football Playoff, but not if several pundits from ESPN have anything to say about it.
Though the AP Poll rightly dropped Alabama, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M for losing to unranked teams on Saturday, the Crimson Tide still sit at No. 13 ahead of two-loss Arizona State — which just reeled off a ranked win on Saturday — and Ole Miss sits ahead of several two-loss teams, including Tulane, BYU, and Iowa State.
ESPN's Heather Dinich — who has had the SEC propped up in every single one of her playoff projections — still had Alabama, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M ranked ahead of two-loss Clemson in her latest rankings. Dinich also had Clemson's in-state rival South Carolina, who is ranked behind the Tigers in the CFP Rankings, jumping ahead of Clemson because of their obvious quality win over Wofford this past weekend.
Say what you want to about strength of schedule, it doesn't matter when you lose. A two-loss SEC team certainly had a clear path to the playoff, but the fact that we're still seeing analysts rank three-loss SEC teams that just had bad losses ahead of two-loss teams in other conferences is a problem, especially when the narrative is already being set by ESPN.
ESPN's playoff predictor currently has Alabama sitting at a 37% chance to make the College Football Playoff with three losses. The Crimson Tide have better odds than Iowa State, Arizona State, BYU, Tulane, and Clemson, all two-loss teams that are still alive to play in the conference title game.
It's like ESPN isn't even hiding it.
This was ESPN's post right after the Crimson Tide lost to Oklahoma.
Can 3-loss Alabama get into the CFP? 👀 pic.twitter.com/huK2BDe69L
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 24, 2024
ESPN has never shied away from the fact that it has bias and will vault up SEC teams, but this just seems to be over the top. In a year when we continue to see more parity than most, why should any team from any conference make it to the playoff with three losses, especially if that includes a blowout loss to Oklahoma in November, when games are supposed to count for more? At the very least, it should be South Carolina if a three-loss team gets in, considering the Gamecocks will have won six-straight, including a game against Clemson to close out the season.
Don't be surprised when the narrative heats up over the coming days — particularly on Tuesday night and the fallout from Tuesday — on the train for Alabama to make the playoff. It shouldn't be the case, but that's where we are in the state of college football. We'd expect Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, Paul Finebaum, and many others to all lobby for it, and it will be interesting to see what the committee's response will be.
We all know what the answer should be, but what will it be? That's the real question.
The College Football Playoff Rankings will be released some time between 8 p.m. E.T. and 9 p.m. E.T. on Tuesday. The rankings show will be between college basketball games this week.