TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — If you listen closely, you might be able to hear the sound of No. 13 Alabama backing its way into this year’s playoff picture.
Winning the Iron Bowl was the first step toward the Crimson Tide climbing back into this year’s 12-team playoff. Alabama checked that off with a 28-14 victory over Auburn inside Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Step 2 consisted of chaos among teams above the Tide in the current ranks. Thanks to a couple of upsets, Alabama can check that off, too.
— Unranked Michigan over No. 2 Ohio State
— Unranked Syracuse over No. 6 Miami
— No. 15 South Carolina over No. 12 Clemson
All of a sudden, Alabama is back in business.
We won’t know where the Tide officially stands in the playoff picture until the next rankings are announced on Tuesday evening. However, Alabama will still be in the conversation when it comes to determining the playoff field.
Alabama’s resume currently consists of ranked wins over No. 7 Georgia, No. 15 South Carolina and No. 21 Missouri. Alabama also beat LSU on the road when the Tigers were ranked earlier this season. The Tide has a ranked loss at No. 8 Tennessee and two uglier defeats at Oklahoma and Vanderbilt.
“I think everyone’s aware of our schedule,” Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said when asked to provide a pitch for his team following its Iron Bowl win Saturday. “I don’t know the exact stats, but I know we beat four top 25 teams throughout the year. I don’t know how many, if any teams have done that.
“When you talk about the schedule and what it is week to week, it’s just a grind. Having to come back every week, the only conference that has to do that is ours. … We won five of our last six, playing some physical football. I think we’ve continued to excel in that area, and that’s what the game is all about.”
Alabama will now hope the committee views its resume as better than Miami and South Carolina, who will likely battle the Tide for the final playoff spot.
Miami is 10-2 but does not currently have a ranked win on its schedule. The Hurricanes also have losses to unranked teams in Syracuse and Georgia Tech. That, said, the Orange might move back into the rankings following their upset this week.
Miami’s loss to Syracuse cost the ’Canes a chance to play for the ACC title. Now the committee will decide if Alabama has a better resume despite having one additional loss.
South Carolina is an interesting case. Like Alabama, the Gamecocks are 9-3 with some quality wins — No. 12 Clemson, No. 21 Missouri and No. 20 Texas A&M — under their belt.
South Carolina has better losses — No. 13 Alabama, No. 14 Ole Miss and LSU — than than the Tide. However, the Gamecocks dropped a head-to-head meeting to Alabama with a 27-25 defeat in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama will need to climb above Miami and stay in front of South Carolina in order to move into safety at No. 11. The Tide will need to be at least No. 11 in the rankings as it will be passed by the Big 12 champion, which will earn the final playoff berth by being the fifth-highest conference title winner. Alabama will also be rooting for SMU to knock off Clemson in the ACC Championship Game to prevent the Tigers from stealing a spot as a conference title winner.
All of that was a bit too complicated for Alabama players, coming out of Saturday’s Iron Bowl win.
“We’re just going to let them figure that out,” Alabama receiver Germie Bernard said referencing the playoff committee.
While Bernard elected to hold off on his pitch to the committee, the Washington transfer did agree with his head coach that playing in the SEC is a different challenge than his stops in the Pac 12 and Big Ten.
“Man, I feel like every school in the SEC is a pretty good team,” Bernard said. “We play teams that we thought we should have beat, and that didn’t happen. I think that playing in the SEC is very physical, but it’s a game that’s about execution.”
As for what the committee is getting if it does include Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe said the Tide is a team that has yet to reach its full potential.
“It’s all about reflection,” Milroe said. “That’s something we have on this football team is leaders that step up as leaders and also just reflecting on that we can be so much better. So I don’t think we reached our surface of when we’re a complete football team.”
Alabama will learn its current playoff positioning on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT when the latest rankings will be released live on ESPN.
