Alabama Football: No bump but Tide gets Playoff rankings good news

Alabama football fans were hoping for a bump when the latest Playoff rankings came out Tuesday night. But few Crimson Tide fans were surprised when the Selection Committee left Alabama one behind Texas at No. 8.

Despite Alabama Football not moving up the rankings, there was some good news for the Crimson Tide. Georgia moved above Ohio State to the No. 1 spot. That ranking is exactly what the Crimson Tide needs when it faces the Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game.

If (when) Alabama beats the Bulldogs, there will be almost no way the Crimson Tide, as a one-loss SEC Champion, will be excluded from the final four teams.

The Crimson Tide record took small dings in the latest rankings, as the Ole Miss Rebels moved down four slots to No. 13, after being thrashed by Georgia. The Tennessee Vols dropped even more, down five spots to No. 18, after losing to Missouri.

The Missouri Tigers were the big riser in the latest rankings, jumping into the top 10 at No. 9.

Alabama Football gets more notice as a top team

Since Alabama beat LSU, more and more national media voices are talking about the Tide as one of college football’s top teams. During the rankings show, Joey Galloway said,

"When you look at the way Alabama is playing, if they were to line up right now and play [Georgia], I don’t know if I would feel very comfortable ranking Georgia ahead of them in that game."

Kirk Herbstreit carefully pointed out that while the Selection Committee is currently justified to keep Texas above Alabama, that at the end, other factors become more important than head-to-head. Without making a clear prediction, Kirk implied that the winner of the SEC Championship Game will make the Playoff field, describing the game as “winner takes all.”

A follow-up exchange between Rece Davis, Herbstreit and Galloway gave a strong indication to the opinions held by ESPN that at least one undefeated Power Five champion might not make the Playoff field. One of them even said it could happen to Florida State.

Rece Davis also asked,

"What if (Texas and Alabama) box out someone that was undefeated? That could happen too."

To which Herbstreit replied, “yeah it could.”

The bottom line for Alabama football fans in parsing every word being said about the Crimson Tide is the upward trend of comments acknowledging Alabama as a top national title contender.

The Crimson Tide have been playing their best football as of late, and it should be easy to keep that up this week against Chattanooga. You can cash in on that (likely) easy win at FanDuel! Just sign up, deposit $10 or more and then bet $5 or more on Alabama’s moneyline odds. If they win, you’ll win $150 in bonus bets. Sign up with FanDuel today!