The College Football Playoff Committee uses common sense, ranks Alabama No. 11

Common sense ruled the evening on Tuesday. The College Football Playoff Committee ranked Alabama No. 11 in its penultimate rankings, avoiding all the anti-Alabama bias going around making nonsensical arguments for a team that Alabama beat in the regular season and another that went the whole season without beating a ranked team.

The Crimson Tide isn't really deserving of a playoff spot. No rational Alabama fan would deny that statement. But when everyone decided they wanted an expanded playoff, there was always going to be team(s) that didn't deserve to compete for a national championship getting into the field.

The thing about a 12-team playoff is there has to be 12 teams. And of the teams that had an argument for the final playoff spot, it was obvious that Alabama had the best resume of those teams if you could just remove your Bama-hating goggles for just a brief moment.

Alabama fatigue is an epidemic. It has infected fans of every other program, the national media, and referees across the country. Alabam dominated the last 17 years of college football and people are tired of it.

But look at the resumes. Miami has one less loss than Alabama, but they went through a 12-game schedule without beating a Top-25 team. They played the 55th-best strength of schedule in the country while Alabama played the 17th.

The argument for South Carolina was always nonsensical. The on-field results have to matter. The Gamecocks had a great finish to the season, winning six consecutive games. But South Carolina lost to Alabama on October 12th.

Ole Miss had an argument, but Alabama played the tougher schedule and beat an extra Top 25 team than the Rebels did. As bad as Alabama's losses to Oklahoma and Vanderbilt were, neither was as bad as Ole Miss losing to 4-8 Kentucky at home.

As things stand, Alabama will be in the College Football Playoff as long as SMU beats Clemson in the ACC Championship Game. A Clemson win could give the ACC a second bid with SMU ranked No. 8. I don't think, barring a blowout, that the committee would knock a team that lost a championship game lower than a team they were ranked ahead of that didn't have to play an extra game.

This week's rankings would have No. 11 Alabama traveling to South Bend to face No. 6 Notre Dame in the opening round of the playoff. The winner would take on No. 3 seed SMU in the quarterfinals.

Pony Up. Roll Ponies. Whatever cheer you want to come up with: we are all SMU fans this weekend.