College football's Week 10 was perhaps the most productive Alabama Crimson Tide bye-week ever. Four teams ranked above Alabama in last week's AP Poll lost on Saturday. At least one of the four can no longer be considered a Playoff contender.
Sunday's traditional polls will matter for only two days. On Tuesday night the only ranking that matters will be released by the CFB Playoff Selection Committee. Alabama may or may not be in the first Playoff rankings top 12 teams. But after Week 10, there are solid reasons to be confident a 10-2 Alabama Crimson Tide would make the final Playoff field. Jerry Pam's latest projection is that the Crimson Tide is the eventual Playoff No. 9 seed, facing Penn State in State College. Palm projects four SEC teams in the Playoffs: Georgia; Texas, Tennessee, and Alabama.
Palm's projection has three Big Ten teams making the Playoffs; two Big 12 teams and just one ACC team.
ESPN's latest FPI Ranking still has the Alabama Crimson Tide at No. 3. The interesting, though unproven Allstate Playoff Predictor calculates that a 10-2 Crimson Tide has a 97% probability of making the Playoffs as the No. 7 seed.
Alabama Crimson Tide Rankings Boost
In Sunday's latest Coaches Poll, Alabama moved up three spots to No. 11. The big gainers in the Coaches Poll were Ole Miss up six spots to No. 12; Boise State and SMU up four spots to No. 14 and No. 15 respectively. LSU moved up three spots to No. 13. Vanderbilt regained the No. 25 spot after its road win over Auburn.
The biggest drop in the Coaches Poll was Clemson down nine spots to No.17. Other Week 10 losers are Iowa State down eight spots to No. 18; Kansas State down six spots to No. 21; Pittsburgh down six spots to No. 23 and Texas A&M down five spots to No. 16.
Missouri moved up one spot to No. 22. In the 'Others Receiving Votes' list, South Carolina is No. 28.
UPDATE: In the AP Poll, Alabama moved up to No. 11. Other SEC teams ranked in the AP Poll top 25 are Georgia (No. 2), Texas (No. 5), Tennessee (No. 7), LSU (No. 14), Texas A&M (No. 15), Ole Miss (No. 16), and Vanderbilt (No. 24). Just outside the top 25 are Missouri (No. 26) and South Carolina (No. 27).