Alabama climbs in College Football Playoff rankings following win at LSU

Alabama moved up a spot to No. 10 in the second edition of the College Football Playoff released Tuesday night. The Crimson Tide is currently the highest two-loss team in the rankings and sits firmly within the expanded 12-team playoff picture.

Oregon remained the top team in the rankings followed by No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Penn State and No. 5 Indiana, No. 6 BYU, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 9 Miami, No. 10 Alabama, No. 11 Ole Miss, No. 12 Georgia and No. 13 Boise State.

The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded 1-4 and will also receive a first-round bye. That means currently BYU would move to the No. 3 seed as the Big 12 representative and Miami would move to the No. 4 seed as the ACC representative. Those two would bump Ohio State and Penn State out of the top four. Texas then moves up to the No. 2 seed. Bosie State also currently bumps Georgia out of the playoff field as the fifth-highest conference leader. The Broncos would be given the No. 12 seed representative of winning the Mountain West.

Teams seeded 5-12 will face off in the first round with the better seed hosting on its college campus. As the playoff picture stands now, those matchups would include:

No. 12 seed Boise State at No. 5 seed Ohio State

No. 11 seed Ole Miss at No. 6 seed Penn State

No. 10 seed Alabama at No. 7 seed Indiana

No. 9 seed Notre Dame at No. 8 seed Tennessee.

The four winners of those matchups will move on to face the top four seeds in the quarterfinal finals. Those matchups would include:

No. 12 Boise State/No. 5 Ohio State vs. No. 4 Miami

No. 11 Ole Miss/No. 6 Penn State vs. BYU

No. 10 Alabama/No. 7 Indiana vs. No. 2 Texas

No. 9 Notre Dame/No. 8 Tennessee vs. No. 1 Oregon.

The quarterfinal, semifinal and final rounds of the playoff will all be held at neutral sites. This year’s national championship game will take place in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Jan. 20.

Alabama’s playoff resume includes wins over two ranked teams — No. 12 Georgia (41-34 at home), No. 21 South Carolina (27-25 at home), No. 22 LSU (42-13 on the road) and No. 23 Missouri (34-0 at home). The Tide is the only team with four wins over ranked teams

Alabama (7-2, 4-2 in the SEC) should remain in the playoff picture this week as it hosts FCS foe Mercer (9-1) on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT. The Crimson Tide is currently a 29-point favorite over the Bears.