Bobby Carpenter dives headfirst into Alabama, Miami, South Carolina College Football Playoff debate

The General has spoken. All that is left to see is if the College Football Playoff selection committee follows his orders.

During a Tuesday appearance on ESPN’s Get Up, former Ohio State and NFL linebacker Bobby Carpenter gave his assessment of the ongoing debate over which team among Miami, Alabama or South Carolina is more deserving of what could be the final at-large bid in the upcoming 12-team College Football Playoff.

The college football world will get an early look at how that battle might shake out with tonight’s reveal of the penultimate College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings.

The biggest question is how far does the 13-member CFP selection committee drop the Hurricanes (10-2) following Saturday’s 42-38 loss at Syracuse, and what that means for a trio of 9-3 SEC teams – Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina – which ranked 13, 14, and 15th, respectively, in last week’s CFP Top 25.

For Carpenter, it all comes down to the on-field product, especially for Miami.

“I’m a huge Cam Ward fan, I think he’s one of the best and should be in New York for the Heisman Trophy (ceremony), but the reality is Miami has played with their food all year,” Carpenter said Tuesday morning on ESPN’s Get Up. “They haven’t had that difficult of a schedule, they’ve got a couple of losses now, they’ve got a porous defense. I don’t necessarily think they should be in there.”

Miami falling out of the 12-team field would open a potential spot for one of the aforementioned three-loss SEC teams currently on the outside looking in. And Carpenter believes that team will be the Crimson Tide given their 27-25 head-to-head win over the Gamecocks in mid-October.

“I think Alabama with their win over South Carolina kind of gives them the heads up. There’s a lot of teams that have ugly marks, but I think Bama gets in,” Carpenter said. “However, I think South Carolina is probably the team nobody wants to play, but we’ll see what the Tide will be able to do. I think they probably have the strongest resume, and we’ll see tonight, but I think they end up getting in.”

Heather Dinich: Miami biggest X-factor to Alabama’s Playoff case

Earlier on Tuesday’s Get Up, ESPN expert Heather Dinich discussed the Hurricanes and the Crimson Tide. She wants to see where The ‘U and ‘Bama find themselves in the ratings with it providing an idea of which of the two, if either, make the 12-team Playoff field.

For Dinich, Alabama will still be right there on the bubble, along with some other teams in the SEC.

“The reason I have the Tide at 12 in the ranking is because I think the selection committee will continue to honor Alabama and Ole Miss’ head-to-head wins against South Carolina, as good as South Carolina is playing,” Dinich explained.

“Back to Miami for a minute,” Dinich continued. “I think Selection Committee Chair Warde Manuel is going to repeat what he has said this season about the committee respecting close losses. They have two of them – Georgia Tech and now Syracuse. Those two losses are probably better in the committee’s meeting room than Alabama’s two losses to Oklahoma and Vanderbilt, two teams that each have six losses.”