ESPN analysts split on College Football Playoff selection committee putting Alabama ahead of Miami

Much to the delight of those in Tuscaloosa — and likely the SEC league offices — and the consternation of those around the ACC and Coral Gables, Alabama clocked in a spot ahead of Miami in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.

And with one week left to play and both teams idle for conference championships, it seems the Crimson Tide has put itself in position over the Hurricanes to secure the last at-large spot. It’s a choice from the CFP selection committee that divide the ESPN studio crew revealing the picks.

One, analyst Booger McFarland, felt it was a slippery slope to elevate 9-3 Alabama from the thicket of four teams that seem to be vying for the last at large spot. Of that group, there are three 9-3 SEC teams and the 10-2 Hurricanes.

“As far as Alabama over Miami: I think that’s going to be a slippery slope as these playoffs continue to develop,” McFarland said. “Because you have a team in one of the Power 4 conferences that has the least amount of losses when it comes to these two teams. Miami’s 10-2, Alabama’s 9-3. And so to put Alabama in over Miami right now, I think that’s one of those things, man, we better be careful as far as that’s concerned when these strength of schedules are imbalanced.”

How colleague, Joey Galloway, was less perturbed. His general take is that by the time you’ve gotten to multiple losses and the decision more or less comes down to the selection committee making a subjective judgement, you missed opportunities to make it a cut and dry decision.

That’s true for both Alabama and Miami in this case, Galloway thinks, as both teams could be in a much stronger spot without some late-season stumbles.

“And once you open the door to be judged on the eye test, after that, that’s your business,” Galloway said. “And I’ve said this to Rece [Davis] before, all these teams we’re talking about — Ole Miss, Alabama, South Carolina, now Miami — when you open the door and lose to unranked teams, now whatever the committee says, I’m OK with. Alabama lost to Oklahoma, that’s why they’re in this discussion. Because they wouldn’t be in it if they did not.”

Davis then posed a question to analyst Greg McElroy — a former Alabama quarterback — about how to split the two teams in a subjective sense.

“I think often times that last spot is often about football judgement,” McElroy said. “My question, though, about this committee is what’s now changed? Because it feels like in the first three or four editions of the rankings that they’ve given us, it’s been very much ‘You know, strength of schedule’s important but it’s not as important as the win-loss record.’ That’s been elevated slightly based on prior years — that wasn’t always important. Strength of schedule was the No. 1 factor. And it wasn’t up until this week. And now I think they’re finally recognizing that while Miami is explosive offensively, they have massive flaws defensively. And I think when you look — and that’s the tough thing about the 12-team playoff. The teams that are vying for that last spot are all flawed. It’s just, ‘Who’s less flawed?'”

And Galloway put a bow on the discussion, saying that the committee seemingly lets a team skate on its flaws so long as it wins. Once the losses start coming, and shortcomings are harder to ignore, the committee starts to punish a team.

“I think they see it but they don’t punish you until you lose. So they see these flaws and as long as you find ways to win those games, the ones you’re talking about, they won. So OK, we can let that go by. When you lose, now we’re going to punish you,” Galloway said.