It’s a different year, with more teams in the College Football Playoffs, but Alabama is still a lightning rod for criticism.
The Crimson Tide were left in the CFP field of 12 and, in fact, were not dropped after an abysmal SEC championship game showing against Georgia in which they rushed for minus-3 yards and suffered a 28-7 drubbing at the hands of the Bulldogs.
Left out in the cold was an independent that did not play during conference championship weekend: Notre Dame, which flipped with Miami after being ahead of the Hurricanes in the penultimate rankings. The selection committee has since been lambasted, with its inherent biases being heavily criticized. However, human biases aside, the computer model that once governed the final rankings – the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) – agrees … kind of.
The BCS would have had Notre Dame in and Alabama behind the Irish at No. 10, leaving Miami on the outside looking in. That would see Notre Dame in Norman taking on Oklahoma in its first-round game and Alabama heading to College Station to play Texas A&M.
Also notably, under the BCS system Ohio State would still be No. 2 and a hair’s breadth ahead of Georgia, which would leave an Indiana-OSU national championship. It would be a controversial year by any metric, but that’s a byproduct of conference expansion creating tiebreakers that lead to odd conference championship matchups.
What would BCS final rankings be?
Here’s a look at roughly what the final BCS rankings would look like. The Harris Interactive College Football Poll, part of the BCS formula, of course no longer exists. But it can be simulated by the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll. Bold indicates a playoff berth under the current format:
Indiana (13-0)
Ohio State (12-1)
Georgia (12-1)
Texas Tech (12-1)
Oregon (11-1)
Mississippi (11-1)
Texas A&M (11-1)
Oklahoma (10-2)
Notre Dame (10-2)
Alabama (9-3)
Miami (10-2)
BYU (11-2)
Vanderbilt (11-2)
Texas (9-3)
Utah (10-2)
USC (9-3)
Michigan (9-3)
Tulane (11-2)
James Madison (12-1)
Arizona (9-3)
Virginia (10-3)
Navy (9-2)
North Texas (11-2)
Iowa (8-4)
Georgia Tech (9-3)
Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia and Texas Tech would get byes. Oregon would play James Madison in Eugene, Mississippi would see Tulane in Oxford, Texas A&M plays Alabama in College Station, and Notre Dame ends up in Norman to play Oklahoma.
There would still be controversy, of course. It’s par for the course in these rankings. But at least according to the computers, it’s not Alabama getting in the field that’s an issue. It’s Miami jumping Notre Dame after a week in which neither team played.