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No. 6 Alabama (10–2) is far from the presumed favorite in this year’s College Football Playoff, but that hasn’t stopped Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide from finding a way to become a part of the conversation for which teams deserve to round out the top four.
As the debate over the Tide’s CFP chances rages on, a graphic shown during Saturday’s SEC title game between No. 1 Georgia and No. 14 LSU went viral after CBS announcers broke down Bama’s unlikely road to making the Playoff. For those keeping score at home, the SEC powerhouse checked off one of the five boxes on the graphic by soundly defeating Auburn, 49–27, in last weekend’s Iron Bowl.
The four remaining talking points focused on Alabama needing LSU, No. 3 TCU, No. 4 USC and No. 9 Clemson to lose one of their remaining two games to help its chances. And, as fate would have it, all four of those outcomes have come true in the last two weeks.
USC (11–2) and TCU (12–1) were the latest dominoes to fall after losing to No. 11 Utah and No. 10 Kansas State, respectively, in their conference title games on Friday and Saturday. The Tide’s other two must-haves came last weekend when LSU lost to Texas A&M and Clemson fell to No. 19 South Carolina.
With Sunday set to bring the final CFP rankings, it’ll be interesting to see if the committee ends up siding with Alabama after taking recent events into consideration. But, then again, the Tide still have a few things working against them in spite of what was outlined in the graphic.
Much like No. 5 Ohio State, Alabama did not have the opportunity to bolster their CFP hopes with a conference title. Additionally, no two-loss team has ever made the Playoff since its inception in 2015, putting the Tide in an even tougher spot after dropping games to both LSU and No. 7 Tennessee this season.
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For more Alabama coverage, go to Bama Central
