Probably the worst phrase in sports analysis is “the eye test.” It’s a throwaway term sports yakkers use because they think scary numbers will bore their viewers or readers away from the point they’re trying to make.

The eye test is a subjective catch-all. On the right day, any team might pass the eye test and look like the best in the division, conference or nation.

And what’s most infuriating about it — from the perspective of a college football fan, anyway — is how frequently we put important decisions in the hands of people who are probably relying as much on “the eye test” as they are on hard data that’s not all that hard to access.

Alabama deserves to be the top-ranked team in the College Football Playoff poll – not No. 2 behind Clemson from the soft ACC – that Tide loss to Ole Miss be damned.

There’s no question they pass the eye-test – who really wants to play them right now? – but the numbers don’t lie either. When the computers crunch all their data, here’s what they come up with:

  • Football Outsiders S&P Ratings: 1. Alabama
  • Sagarin Computer Ratings: 1. Alabama
  • Massey Computer Rankings: 1. Alabama

You get the idea. Those advanced metrics deal specifically with data that’s not swayed by a human’s favorite conference or a logo on a helmet when making its picks.  Some pretty clear metrics are showing Alabama as No. 1. Lots of them, actually.

But for a more subjective case for the Crimson Tide, let’s go back to that eye test. Let’s bring up the fact that the Tide has gone on the road to face two top-10 opponents — Georgia and Texas A&M — and left both a smoking pile of rubble. Let’s consider that Alabama took on the world’s most unstoppable force, Leonard Fournette, and reduced him to a mere mortal in a 30-16 victory, holding him to just 31 yards on 19 carries.

Let’s look at two other teams Alabama has vanquished in 2015 — Mississippi State and Arkansas — whose quarterbacks just dazzled audiences in a 51-50 football game – and remember that Alabama humbled them both.

Consider all that.

Consider Heisman candidate Derrick Henry at running back, two of the best defensive players in college football on the other side — A’Shawn Robinson and Reggie Ragland — and the resume grows and grows and grows. There’s also the Nick Saban factor, of course, the finest coach in college football.

Add it all up and by any measure, that sure looks like the nation’s No. 1 team.

When will the playoff committee see it that way?