Nobody is Allowed to Say Alabama Deserved to Be Ranked Ahead of Auburn in CFP Despite One Fewer Loss
The latest College Football Playoff rankings have Auburn ranked No. 11, followed by Alabama at No. 12. This seems to make perfect sense after Auburn picked up a magical victory over Alabama this past Saturday.
The interesting part of the discussion, though? Tthat Auburn is 9-3, while Alabama is 10-2. That's enough to make Crimson Tide fans cry foul.
From the new CFP Rankings:
— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) December 4, 2019
11. Auburn
12. Alabama
Alabama may be 10-2, but their schedule notably did not feature the kind of competition they're used to seeing. The Crimson Tide took on a non-conference slate of Duke, New Mexico State, Southern Miss, and Western Carolina. Two losses, even to strong opponents like LSU and Auburn, is at least one too many.
Auburn played Oregon, Tulane, Kent State, and Samford. That win over Oregon has looked consisently good, but claiming Alabama's scalp is about as good as it gets.
Following its loss to Auburn, Alabama falls to No. 12 in the College Football Playoff rankings.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 4, 2019
That’s the worst ranking in the CFP era for the Tide, and their 7 spots dropped is tied for the largest by an SEC team that was previously ranked in the top-5 of the CFP. pic.twitter.com/FIKDcdEfek
Both teams lost to LSU, and Auburn also had losses against No. 10 Florida and No. 4 Georgia. An extra loss to a top-10 team is not enough to push Auburn behind Alabama after taking the head-to-head matchup.
Period.
One argument going for Alabama is that the team didn't finish the year with Tua Tagovailoa healthy at quarterback. Still, No. 12 is fair given the modest strength of their wins. Tide fans are surely going to be disappointed regardless once they're left out of the Playoff, but that will all fall on deaf ears. And for good reason.