Finally, someone who deserves to be called an expert has picked the Alabama Crimson Tide as a playoff team. Josh Pate has Alabama as an eight seed and a first-round game winner over USC.
More on Pate's prediction below, but first, a look at how badly Alabama fares in predictions from the experts at CBS Sports. The CBS group is Tom Fornelli, Chip Patterson, John Talty, Brandon Marcello, Chris Hummer, Richard Johnson, and Brad Crawford.
Hummer singled out the Crimson Tide as the SEC's most overrated team. Brad Crawford predicted Alabama would finish 9-3 and not make the Playoff field. Tom Fornelli predicted the SEC would get five playoff teams. Since he picked the Crimson Tide as the SEC's No. 4 team, that means he projects the Tide as Playoff-bound.
CBS rankings for Alabama and top SEC teams
- Georgia Bulldogs - Five No. 1 votes and two No. 2 votes
- Texas Longhorns - Two No. 1 votes, four No. 2, and one No. 3
- LSU Bengal Tigers - One No. 2 vote, No. 3, two No. 4, and one No. 5
- Oklahoma Sooners - Three No. 3 votes, one No. 4, two No. 5, and one No. 7
- Texas A&M Aggies - two No. 6 votes, three No. 7, one No. 8, and one No. 11
- Alabama Crimson Tide - two fourth-place votes, one fifth-place, three sixth-place, and one seventh-place
- The lowest rankings for other SEC teams are: No. 16 (Arkansas and Mississippi State), No. 15 (Kentucky), No. 14 (South Carolina and Vanderbilt), No. 13 (Auburn), No. 12 (Missouri), No, 11 (Florida), No. 9 (Tennessee and Ole Miss)
Returning to Josh Pate's Playoff predictions, he formed his latest projection after seeing the Crimson Tide firsthand in a Fall Camp scrimmage. While Pate's take on Alabama is refreshing, with Alabama making the field and winning a Playoff game, his other picks will displease Alabama fans. Pate has the Crimson Tide losing to Notre Dame in the second round. His pick to win it all is the Miami Hurricanes.
Pate is a straight shooter, which is not to suggest that the guys at CBS are not. Perhaps the CBS experts are not as closely attuned to the SEC as they were when CBS was the SEC's broadcast partner.
Add us as a preferred source on Google