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By Rowan Fisher-Shotton
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The first College Football Playoff rankings have sparked plenty of debate, with Alabama's position among the biggest talking points.
The 6-2 Crimson Tide landed at No. 5 overall, ahead of several teams with better records, and most controversially, eight spots above Tennessee, who beat Alabama 26-10 in Knoxville on Oct. 17.
The committee has defended its decision by pointing to Alabama's stronger collection of wins, including victories over No. 6 Kentucky and No. 21 South Carolina, along with an early-season win over a previously undefeated Mississippi State. Committee chairman Hunter Yurachek also explained that Alabama and Tennessee were placed in separate comparison groups, meaning their head-to-head result wasn't directly considered when deciding the gap between them.
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FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt was among those who took issue with Alabama's position, particularly the massive gap between the Crimson Tide and the Volunteers.
"Sorry, what was that?" Klatt said. "Nobody threw a challenge flag that Alabama is five and Tennessee is what? What is Tennessee, a million!? Did we not see Tennessee drill Alabama head-to-head? Tennessee is 13? Might as well be a million, you're outside of the playoff. What does it matter if you're 13. You could be 13, you could be 36, same thing, dead.
"Two spots ahead of Texas, eight ahead of Tennessee ... Texas has far better wins than Alabama, and they're a two-loss team. How is Texas not ranked ahead of Alabama? That makes no sense," Klatt added. "Texas scheduled a real non-conference game. Don't tell me Florida State is a real non-conference game. They just fired their head coach. Stop it. Stop it. They beat Tennessee, who Alabama lost to in the same venue, and they're two spots behind Alabama? Make it make sense. It can't. It doesn't. It just doesn't."
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Alabama opened the season 5-0 before dropping back-to-back games against Georgia (20-17) and Tennessee (26-10). Those aren't weak opponents, but the losses were a bad look for Kalen DeBoer. It was DeBoer's first time losing two straight games at Alabama, and the first time since 2007 the Tide as a program lost back-to-back games.
Alabama's best wins this season came 45-17 at No. 6 Kentucky in Week 2, a 49-18 win over No. 21 South Carolina at home, and a 56-23 win at Mississippi State. However, that Wildcats team already looks much better now than it did at the start of the year, with that remaining their only loss on the season, and Mississippi State played that game with a hobbled Kamario Taylor.
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Tennessee is also 6-2, with its 26-10 result over Alabama being its best win of the season. The Vols also defeated Auburn at home, Georgia Tech on the road, and Arkansas on the road, with their two losses coming against Texas (20-17) and South Carolina (27-24), both by just three points.
Alabama next goes on the road to face No. 14 LSU on Saturday before traveling to Vanderbilt and back-to-back home games against Chattanooga and Auburn. Tennessee, meanwhile, will host Texas A&M on Saturday before going to Arkansas, hosting No. 2 Georgia, and closing their season on the road at Clemson.
Both teams still have opportunity to strengthen their playoff cases, and the upcoming games could quickly change their CFP outlook.
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