The College Football Playoff committee knew the spotlight would be on them Tuesday night, and they didn’t have to wait long to feel the heat. Just moments after the latest CFP rankings dropped, committee chair Hunter Yurachek was fielding questions from ESPN’s Rece Davis - and the first one hit right at the heart of this week’s biggest debate: Why did Alabama leapfrog Notre Dame?
The Crimson Tide moved up to No. 9, nudging Notre Dame down to No. 10 in the penultimate CFP rankings - just five days ahead of Selection Sunday, when the final playoff bracket will be revealed. And while a one-spot shuffle might not seem seismic on paper, it speaks volumes about how the committee is viewing these two blue bloods down the stretch.
According to Yurachek, the Alabama-Notre Dame debate has been one of the most hotly contested discussions in the committee room - not just this season, but over the past two years.
“This debate has been one of the strongest we’ve had in the room,” Yurachek said. “It’s been going on for three weeks now.”
So what tipped the scales in Alabama’s favor this time around? It wasn’t about dominating the stat sheet or blowing out an opponent.
In fact, quite the opposite. Alabama had to claw its way to a dramatic, last-minute win over Auburn in the Iron Bowl - a game where the Tide looked vulnerable for long stretches.
But that gritty, come-from-behind victory? It resonated.
Yurachek pointed to the “eye test” - that intangible metric that often separates contenders from pretenders when numbers alone don’t tell the full story. The Tide’s ability to gut out a win in a hostile environment, in a rivalry game with everything on the line, clearly left an impression.
“That was enough to change the minds of a couple committee members,” Yurachek said. “It pushed Alabama above Notre Dame in this week’s rankings.”
Of course, Davis wasn’t going to let it stop there. He pressed further, asking whether Alabama’s jump was a strategic move - a way to safeguard the Tide’s playoff chances in the event they lose the SEC Championship Game and chaos unfolds elsewhere, like a potential BYU upset over Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game.
Yurachek shut that down quickly.
“That did not come up,” he said. “We will evaluate the results of the championship games after they are all completed.”
Translation: No preemptive maneuvering - at least not officially. The committee insists it’s still taking things week by week, letting the games play out before making final decisions.
But make no mistake, this week’s rankings send a clear message. Alabama may not have looked perfect, but the committee saw something in that Iron Bowl finish that gave them the edge - and with Selection Sunday looming, every small shift in the rankings matters.
The Tide are rising at just the right time. Now it’s up to them to finish the job.