The odds are seemingly in favor of Alabama football.
Despite losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee
and Oklahoma
, despite spending Saturday at home rather than in Atlanta playing for an SEC championship and an automatic bid into the College Football Playoff, the Crimson Tide
remain favorites to make the 12-team CFP when the official bracket is revealed Sunday.
Advertisement
According to Caesars Sportsbook, Alabama
has -300 odds, better odds than SMU, which is playing for a conference championship Saturday night, better odds than South Carolina
and Ole Miss
, better odds than two-loss Miami.
The Crimson Tide
, with three regular-season losses in tow, looks like it will have a chance to play for a national championship, a chance Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne
is lobbying for, a chance football coach Kalen DeBoer is rallying support for.
"It's gotten to the point where we can be really up front and straight-forward," DeBoer said Tuesday on "The Pat McAfee
Show." "I expressed to them that, hey, there's a committee that's got some tough decisions. We all get that. There's so many great teams in college football. But I know from within, we're speaking in terms that we're one of the best 12 teams the way we see it. That's not egotistical. That's not arrogant. That's not the way I'm talking. But we understand who we are and that we have to be ready."
And from where the CFP selection committee has Alabama in the penultimate edition of its top-25 rankings, it thinks the Crimson Tide should be ready as well.
Advertisement
Alabama is ranked above two-loss Miami, giving the Crimson Tide
an inside track to one of the final spots in the CFP. It's ranked above Ole Miss
and South Carolina.
Alabama, ranked No. 11, is listed as the 11-seed.
According to the latest CFP rankings, the Crimson Tide would face No. 6 Notre Dame on the road for a quarterfinal matchup with SMU.
To CFP selection committee chairman Warde Manuel, the comparison between Alabama and Miami was simple.
"What it really came down to is Alabama is 3-1 against current top-25 teams and Miami is 0-1," Manuel said on ESPN. "Alabama is 6-1 against teams above .500 and Miami is 4-2. Both have had some losses that weren't what they wanted out of those games. But in the last three games, Miami has lost twice. So for us, evaluating their body of work, we felt Alabama got the edge over Miami."
Advertisement
And the order is set. Manuel said the order of Alabama, Miami, Ole Miss and South Carolina is set with no more data points to work off of.
"That is set in terms of how we see them going into the final week," Manuel said.
Based on the latest set of rankings, barring upset wins in the Mountain West championship between Boise State
and UNLV
, and the ACC championship between SMU and Clemson.
Based on the latest set of rankings, Alabama has locked up a CFP spot. With three losses.
Like DeBoer told McAfee, Alabama has to "be ready."
Colin Gay covers
Alabama football
for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at
cgay@gannett.com
or follow him
@_ColinGay
on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News:
Why Alabama football will stay ahead of Miami in final CFP rankings
