Warde Manuel reveals why Alabama was top 3-loss SEC team in fourth College Football Playoff rankings

The chaos of Week 13 meant the College Football Playoff committee had some decisions to make. Three SEC teams – Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina – have three losses, and all eyes were on where they’d come in during the fourth rankings reveal.

Ultimately, Alabama came in as the highest-ranked of the group at No. 13, followed by Ole Miss at No. 14 and South Carolina at No. 15. According to CFP committee chair Warde Manuel, that decision was largely due to head-to-head matchups.

Manuel said the Crimson Tide’s resume – which includes wins over Georgia, Missouri and LSU – was a separator in the committee’s decision. But since Alabama and Ole Miss both have wins over South Carolina, that led them to come in at 13, 14 and 15, respectively.

“Because of their win over Georgia,” Manuel said of Alabama. “They won against Missouri, they’ve beat South Carolina and they won at LSU in dominant fashion. When you put those four wins against Mississippi and what they did, they had the win against Georgia and the win at South Carolina, but they had a tough loss to Florida. Lost to LSU in overtime. So when we compared resumes, that’s how we saw it, in terms of the difference between Alabama and Mississippi.”

Warde Manuel: Alabama, Ole Miss are ‘really similar teams’

Both Alabama and Ole Miss went into Week 13 in the projected 12-team College Football Playoff bracket with hopes of staying in the field. But they struggled in their respective games. Oklahoma put together a strong performance against the Crimson Tide while the Rebels struggled to contain DJ Lagway and the Florida offense.

But when comparing the two teams, Manuel said they were similar evaluations. Ultimately, though, Alabama’s resume put it over the top.

“I would say in the committee’s eyes, they’re really similar teams, and they’ve had similar ways that they’ve gone through the season,” Manuel said of Alabama and Ole Miss. “Both have had losses that you didn’t expect them to have. Alabama had a loss at Oklahoma, and Oklahoma’s performance was dominant against Alabama.

“And then, you have the loss by Mississippi to Florida at Florida. It was one of those losses that you just don’t expect them to have. It was a close game, but where we evaluated it, we came out with Alabama ahead of Mississippi and South Carolina since Alabama and Mississippi both won head-to-head against South Carolina.”