Kentucky’s No. 6 debut in the first College Football Playoff ranking grabbed attention Tuesday night, but Alabama’s placement was the number that really turned heads.
The two-loss Tide landed at No. 5, even with a close home loss to Georgia and a double-digit road loss to Tennessee still on the résumé. With remaining games against LSU on the road, Vanderbilt on the road, Chattanooga at home and Auburn at home, Alabama suddenly looks like a team sitting in a very strong spot. The ranking also hints that a 9-3 regular season team could make the playoff for the first time.
CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek laid out the thinking in a conversation with ESPN’s Rece Davis.
“Went on the road and beat the team that we have ranked six this week in Kentucky,” Yurachek explained. “They also beat South Carolina, who’s ranked in our top 25.
And then I think many forget that they went on the road and beat Mississippi State when Mississippi State was undefeated and at full strength. We really valued that as a strong win for Alabama.”
That win total is what pushed Alabama so high. The Tide have double-digit victories over two ranked teams, including the road win at No.
6 Kentucky. The committee also gave Alabama credit for beating Mississippi State while Kamario Taylor was still available, even though the foot injury that ended his season was already a factor in that game.
Taylor didn’t have his usual mobility, but Alabama still got full credit for the blowout. In the committee’s view, the Tide now own three top-25 wins, and that separated them from the pack.
The ranking also raised the obvious question: how could Alabama sit eight spots ahead of Tennessee when the Volunteers beat them head-to-head? Yurachek said that result didn’t matter in this case because the teams were not in the same tier.
“When you’re trying to compare teams head-to-head, they have to be in the same pod to be compared head-to-head. Alabama, Kentucky were in the same pod,” said Yurachek. “They were compared because of their head-to-head matchup.”
“Alabama got to nod ahead of Kentucky because of that.”
That explanation says plenty about where Kentucky stands. The committee had the Wildcats in the conversation for a top-five spot, but the head-to-head loss to Alabama kept them behind the Tide. Even so, Kentucky’s quality wins and strong metrics helped it separate from some of the other two-loss SEC teams.
The picture can still change plenty as the rankings keep rolling, but Kentucky is in position to earn a bid at 10-2. A win on Saturday could even push the Wildcats into playoff bye consideration, especially with Kentucky already ahead of undefeated UCLA at No.
8, BYU at No. 9 and Notre Dame at No. 11.
Alabama was the surprise, but Kentucky’s only current blemish is a loss to a team that now looks like a lock for an at-large CFP spot.
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