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One year after sneaking into the College Football Playoff, Alabama football was left out of the newly formed 12-team CFP.
Entering Selection Sunday on the bubble for the CFP, the Crimson Tide were listed as one of the two “first teams out” in Sunday’s final CFP rankings.
Earning the No. 11 seed over Alabama was SMU, who was upset in the ACC championship game on Saturday by Clemson.
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The decision by the CFP selection committee to pick the Mustangs over the Crimson Tide has stirred up quite a debate within the college football circles following the rankings release — perhaps even started in the minutes following SMU’s loss Saturday.
According to ESPN’s College Football Power Index, Alabama had a higher FPI ranking (which measures a team’s true strength on net points scale) than SMU entering Sunday. The Crimson Tide were ranked at No. 4 compared to the Mustangs being at No. 13.
Here’s what CFP selection committee chair Warde Manuel said on Sunday on why the Mustangs won out the final seeding in the College Football Playoff:
Why did CFP select SMU over Alabama?
Alabama came into Sunday’s rankings with a 9-3 overall but a 5-3 record in SEC play, with two of those losses coming against then-unranked Vanderbilt and unranked Oklahoma. The only “ranked” loss for Alabama came on Oct. 12 against Tennessee, which was given the No. 9 seed in the CFP bracket.
The Mustangs, in their first season in the ACC after coming over from the American Athletic Conference, suffered their only loss outside of Saturday vs Clemson in Week 2 vs BYU.
Manuel’s main point for SMU edging out Alabama came down to their overall wins, especially the Mustangs 8-0 conference record.
“We looked at the number of wins that Alabama had against ranked components. We…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-smu-edged-alabama-final-191119063.html
Author : USA TODAY Sports
Publish date : 2024-12-08 19:11:00
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