College Football Playoff rankings crew debates if Alabama deserves No. 6 spot over TCU

The first College Football Playoff rankings of 2022 were announced Tuesday, and Alabama came in at No. 6. The Crimson Tide were the first one-loss team listed, coming in one spot ahead of undefeated TCU.

That led ESPN analyst David Pollack to question whether there is reason for fans to be upset about Alabama’s place in the CFP rankings. On ESPN’s College Football Playoff: Top 25 rankings reveal show, Pollack listed not only their loss to Tennessee this season, but a couple of other close calls against mediocre teams as a reason why the Crimson Tide might be too high.

“Is there reason to be upset when you’ve seen Alabama very easily could have lost to Texas?” Pollack asked. “Could’ve lost to (Texas) A&M, got beat by Tennessee. That’s what you’re putting at No. 6 right now. If we’re putting all the body of work together, is that worthy of No. 6?”

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One of Pollack’s co-hosts, Joey Galloway, was in complete agreement.

“What we’ve seen if I’m TCU, not me, but if I’m TCU, I’m already thinking, ‘What’s going on here?'”

Rece Davis, however, had a slightly different opinion on Alabama’s College Football Playoff ranking. He asked fans to remember that these first rankings usually mean little to nothing by the end of the season, and that Alabama will still have to run the table if it hopes to make the Playoff for the eighth time.

“People get upset about Alabama, but just remember this: If Alabama wins the rest of these games they’re gonna be in the Playoff,” Davis said. “If they lose one, they’re not. If they lose one Saturday they might not even make the SEC Championship. …For the people who get upset about where they are, this will take care of itself.”

Alabama has two huge games remaining on its schedule for both its College Football Playoff hopes and its SEC title hopes. First, the Crimson Tide will face LSU, which came in at No. 10 in the initial rankings, at 6 p.m. CT on Saturday.

If they manage to win that game, they’ll face No. 11 Ole Miss the following week. A loss in either of those games would make it incredibly difficult to make the SEC title game, thus likely ending their Playoff hopes for good.

However, we’ve seen the Crimson Tide make the CFP three times as a one-loss team, so both possibilities are still very much on the table.