On Tuesday night, the Alabama Crimson Tide were included in the initial 12-team College Football Playoff rankings, seeded at No. 11 up against the No. 6 seed Texas Longhorns in the first round.
However, were the Crimson Tide potentially seeded too-high based on their current 6-2 record? ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith appears to think so based on his comments from the show “First Take” on Wednesday morning, saying to fellow analyst Paul Finebaum:
“I’m not going to lie to you, I wouldn’t have had a problem with them being outside of the Top 12, looking-in, and having them have to prove themselves by showing up against LSU this weekend,” Smith said.
Smith also mentioned the Crimson Tide’s losses to Vanderbilt and Tennessee after defeating Georgia as a reason behind this thought, with Finebaum also responding on Alabama’s CFP standing, saying:
“That loss against Vanderbilt isn’t as bad as it looked four weeks ago,” Finebaum said. “Listen, I think Vanderbilt could beat a lot of those Big Ten teams that we’re sitting here whining about. Vanderbilt went down to Auburn last weekend and won. They have been impressive. So, I think as far as Alabama is concerned, they’re about where they ought to be, but it really doesn’t matter where they are because if they win Saturday night, they have a straight shot in to the Playoffs. I know how down you are, and you can feel however you want, but I don’t think they’re in bad shape here. I’m not saying it’s easy to go to Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night. Everybody knows what that is, but they really do control their own destiny right now, and that’s remarkable considering how bad they have been, but that win against Georgia, it may not be enough to trump Ohio State, but it’s enough to get them in, assuming they can win this weekend. They are really in surprisingly good shape as long as they do what they didn’t do two years ago with your guy Nick Saban when they lost in overtime.”
As Finebaum said, all Alabama has to do is win Saturday night in Baton Rouge to keep increasing their College Football Playoff chances.
Will it be easy? No, but it is certainly possible for Alabama to leave Tiger Stadium with a win.