Probably the most consistent refrains from the social media struggle between Notre Dame and Miami fanatics has been that the sport at the box issues. If that had been true, what came about to BYU and Alabama on Saturday will have to have clarified the place everybody stands, however it most probably gained’t.
Let’s get started with BYU. The Cougars had been blown out through Texas Tech 34-7, a margin of defeat even better than once they confronted the Raiders in Lubbock previous this season (29-7).
For all intents and functions, BYU’s School Soccer Playoff (CFP) bid is over. I do know they’re just a two-loss workforce, and the ones losses are incredible. Either one of them to an improbable Texas Tech workforce that might neatly be the most productive workforce within the nation.
However the committee knew what they had been doing once they ranked the Cougars eleventh. It put them ready to keep watch over their very own future, the place they might knock off the No. 4 workforce within the nation and vault Notre Dame into the playoffs. Or they might lose and get bounced.
Because it seems, no longer handiest did they lose, however in addition they misplaced badly.
BYU is out.
Now for Alabama.
The Tide gained an absolutely unearned elevation within the scores from 10 to 9 this week, leapfrogging Notre Dame, since the committee suspected Alabama would possibly lose the SEC Championship Sport and sought after to verify the Tide nonetheless had a seat when the playoff tune stopped.
That “want” from the committee grew to become out to be a lot wanted, because the Pink Tide were given shellacked through Georgia 28-7.
However that rating doesn’t inform the entire tale. No, to get into the real, gory main points of Bama’s dismantlement by the hands of the Bulldogs, you want to enter the numbers themselves.
Georgia held Alabama to -3 dashing yards within the recreation. A stat that may indubitably fill the telephone traces on The Paul Finebaum Display subsequent week with apoplectic Alabamians calling for head trainer Kalen DeBoer’s head.
Ty Simpson #15 of the Alabama Pink Tide throws the ball from the top zone beneath drive through the Georgia Bulldogs protection within the 2025 SEC Championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 0,6, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Todd Kirkland/Getty Photographs)
However that’s no longer all.
As a workforce, Bama used to be held to 209 internet yards of offense. Alabama transformed handiest 3-of-14 third down makes an attempt. 3-of-14!
Alabama used to be ruled in each and every approach a soccer workforce may also be ruled. Couple this with their close to loss towards 5-7 Auburn ultimate week, and Alabama seemed like a workforce that are meant to no longer be within the playoff.
If truth be told, given how they performed, they shouldn’t be within the playoffs. In the end, if BYU will get blown out and drops out of the playoff, then Alabama will have to, too, proper?
Neatly, no longer so speedy.
Alabama nonetheless has the most productive win within the nation (although, as I write this, Indiana has the top-ranked Buckeyes very a lot at the ropes) with their defeat of third-ranked Georgia in Athens over a month in the past.
Bama’s Power of Time table & Power of Document is best than ND & Miami’s. Alabama has seven wins towards FPI Best 35 groups. ND had one. Miami had two.
Sure, the Tide has 3 losses, which is why the committee will most probably turn them with Notre Dame for the second one week in a row, and lead them to 10th, as the brand new buffer between the Irish and the Hurricanes.
Does the committee have an SEC bias? In fact, they do. That’s why they moved Alabama to 9 and gave them the buffer of the 10 spot in case issues went sideways in Atlanta. Alternatively, the committee’s bias isn’t just an SEC bias; it additionally displays an institutional bias.
Think the CFP elects to bop Alabama out of the playoffs for its loss within the SEC Convention Championship. If that’s the case, Sport, they’re going to necessarily be ordering the Code Pink on convention championship video games. If Alabama misses out on a possibility to visit the playoffs on account of an additional recreation that neither Miami nor Notre Dame needed to play, each and every workforce will forfeit its convention championship video games subsequent yr.
The committee, made up of faculty soccer executives who know all too neatly how massive the ones convention championship video games are on the subject of sponsorships and cash for the colleges and the meetings.
There would possibly neatly come a time when meetings and convention championship video games are executed away with. However that second has no longer but arrived.
Alabama would possibly should be out. However this determination is ready much more than Alabama. The rest can occur, however don’t be expecting the committee to get up and make a selection that roughly violence day after today.
