Alabama falling behind Notre Dame in the Playoff Poll? That’s a joke
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The College Football Playoff selection committee did the same thing on Tuesday that the Associated Press voters inexplicably did on Sunday. That is, rank Notre Dame at No. 9 ahead of Alabama at No. 10.
Both 2-loss teams would still make the Playoff if the season ended today. Inevitably, both fanbases will tell you “ignore the rankings and just win.” Sure. Teams can do that. Coaches can sell that.
As for the rest of us, well, we’re free to break down a significant development on Tuesday night.
Alabama losing to Oklahoma was inevitably going to drop the Tide below the Sooners within the top 10. Dropping Alabama below Notre Dame, who got a nice road win at 7-win Pitt in Week 12, made as much sense as whatever Pat Narduzzi said about the significance of facing the Irish with College GameDay in the house.
Don’t believe that? OK, here’s the not-so-blind résumé:
- Wins vs. current Playoff 25: Alabama 4, Notre Dame 1
- Wins vs. Power Conference bowl teams: Alabama 5, Notre Dame 2
- Wins vs. current Playoff Top 10: Alabama 1, Notre Dame 0
Ah, but now is the part where Notre Dame fans jump in and tell me that Alabama got smashed at Florida State in Week 1, and that’s a much worse loss than anything on Notre Dame’s résumé. It’s definitely worse. We’ve also had multiple weeks of the selection committee treating Alabama as the top 1-loss team. It wasn’t as if the loss in Tallahassee was wiped off the slate, but there was some grace because of what the Tide did to make up for it since Week 1.
You know, like beat 4 consecutive AP Top 25 teams without any bye or rest. No team in SEC history had ever done that. Never mind the fact that those teams entered those matchups with 0-1 losses.
How have those historic 4 wins aged, you asked?
Well, Georgia is up to No. 4 with still just that lone home loss to Alabama, Vanderbilt is still in the hunt as a 2-loss team at No. 14 and Tennessee and Mizzou are 3-loss teams who are both still in the Playoff Poll at No. 20 and No. 22, respectively, heading into the 4th Saturday of November.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s best win is at home against 2-loss USC, who is still a spot behind Vanderbilt.
Ah, but now is there part where Notre Dame fans jump in and tell me about this unbelievable 8-game winning streak. As in, the one that finally included winning a road game against a Power Conference team who had … beaten another conference team. That one.
Even after wins over USC and mighty Pitt, the Power Conferences foes that Notre Dame beat are a combined 13-27 in conference play. In a not-so-stunning development, the Irish’s 2 losses came to the 2 highest-ranked teams it faced this year. Funny how that works. It’s almost as if playing favorable opponents and getting 5 weeks to lick your wounds after an 0-2 start helps. It’s a bit different than how Alabama was tasked with responding.
Oh, but the Tide lost to Oklahoma! That’s a sign of weakness!
Or, perhaps, it’s a sign that Alabama lost in a down-to-the-wire game that could’ve been flipped with a well-executed kick. Notre Dame can relate to that. We all watched how that Texas A&M game played out. Does the selection committee remember those 2 Notre Dame losses? Or is this just all about beating up on a bunch of teams outside the Top 25?
Remember that this weekend when Notre Dame fans and the anti-SEC crowd will post screen shots of Alabama’s matchup with Eastern Illinois. It’ll conveniently ignore that the Tide’s path to loss No. 2 was still far more daunting that the Notre Dame one the selection committee just gave the benefit of the doubt to.
But hey, it’ll all sort itself out, right? Alabama currently sits at No. 10, which would be the last spot in the field if the Playoff started tomorrow (the ACC champ and Group of 5 champ would be put into the final top 12). There’s a chance that Alabama’s résumé doesn’t add anything more than a win against lowly Auburn, and tiebreakers could leave the Tide out of the SEC Championship Game. If 10-2 Alabama is idle during conference championship weekend like we know the Irish will be, those 2 teams are likely staying locked in. That could be Notre Dame getting to No. 8 and Alabama missing out on a home Playoff game at No. 9.
That would be backwards logic. The Irish have been living off it during these first 3 rankings.
It was bad enough that Notre Dame clocked in 8 spots ahead of Miami in the first Playoff ranking. The Irish have already been told by the selection committee that the head-to-head advantage wasn’t enough to block off Notre Dame’s path, even though the selection committee applied that logic to a variety of teams with the same number of losses, including Alabama and No. 8 Oklahoma.
This, however, was another sign that key metrics are being ignored by the selection committee, and it could have a significant impact on how this all shakes out.
Nobody will ever cry foul for Alabama after the unprecedented levels of success the Tide had. And yes, teams like 2017 and 2023 might’ve gotten the benefit of the doubt to make the 4-team field.
But this Alabama squad got its first raw deal of 2025 thanks to the luck of the Irish.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
