Alabama’s loss to Georgia during the SEC Championship did not cost the team its shot at the championship. The College Football Playoff Committee put the Tide at number nine against Oklahoma. The pick comes after Alabama was shutout during the first half against Georgia. After the drubbing by the Bulldogs, Tide quarterback Ty Simpson told reporters that the committee should still include Alabama in the playoffs.
“I mean, I'm not nervous at all, right, like it's not up to me, you know,” said Simpson. “I think that our resume speaks for itself. You know, we went through a gauntlet of a schedule. You know, SEC is the best conference in the country.”
The committee said despite the Tide’s poor performance during the SEC Championship against Georgia, the face that Alabama went on the road to face the Bulldogs and win helped tip the scales in favor of including the team from Tuscaloosa in the playoffs. Coach Kalen DeBoer’s comments following the loss in Atlanta seemed to foretell the Committee’s decision.
"You know, playing in this game against one of the top teams in the country as well, how that can can hurt you?” DeBoer said on Saturday.
Alabama will play the Sooners on December nineteenth at 8 pm as the first game of the playoffs. The Tide is in along with Miami. Notre Dame is out and Indiana is No. 1 in the College Football Playoff’s 12-team bracket released Sunday. The undefeated Hoosiers vaulted to the top spot based on their history-making win in the Big Ten title game against Ohio State, which fell one spot after its 13-10 loss. SEC champion Georgia was third and Big 12 champ Texas Tech fourth. All four get first-round byes.
Most of the drama surrounded the bubble teams, and it was Alabama at No. 9 and Miami at No. 10 making the field by leapfrogging Notre Dame, which lost to the Hurricanes during opening week.
American Conference champion Tulane got the 11th spot and Sun Belt champion James Madison got the last spot over Duke, the champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The rest of the field: No. 5 Oregon, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 7 Texas A&M and No. 8 Oklahoma. The playoffs start Dec. 19-20 with first round games: James Madison at Oregon; Tulane at Mississippi; Miami at Texas A&M; and Alabama at Oklahoma.
The final is set for Jan. 19 outside of Miami.
After the Tide and the Sooners play on December 19th as the opening act of the playoffs, Miami will face Texas A & M on December 20th at noon (ET,) Tulane is up against Ole Miss at 3:30 pm (ET,) and final James Madison will play Oregon at 7:30 pm (ET.)
