What Alabama football is ranked in first College Football Playoff rankings of 2022
Nick KellyAlabama football received the No. 6 spot in the initial College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday.
The one-loss Crimson Tide is ranked ahead of No. 7 TCU, which is undefeated. Meanwhile, Tennessee received the No. 1 ranking and Georgia is No. 3.
"Alabama has got the dominant wins over Mississippi State, at Arkansas, the close win at Texas," CFP selection committee chair Boo Corrigan said. "Bryce Young missed the Texas A&M game, which was close, and TCU with the wins against Oklahoma State at home and Kansas State at home. Really good wins, really good team, but we felt like the defense struggled to keep points off the board at times, but it doesn't takeaway from the season they've had thus far."
Corrigan also mentioned the close 52-49 loss to Tennessee after the rankings were released.
The Crimson Tide is looking to make the CFP field for the eighth time in its nine year existence. The only time Alabama has missed the playoff was 2019.
A year ago, the Crimson Tide did not receive the top spot in the initial CFP rankings and instead was ranked No. 2 on Nov. 2, 2021. Then Alabama ran the table, won the SEC Championship Game and earned the top spot in the final rankings.
The Crimson Tide (7-1, 4-1 SEC) finds itself in a similar spot this season, needing to all but win out. No two-loss team has ever made the four-team playoff.
Next up for Alabama is LSU (6-2, 4-1) on Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN) at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is a top-10 matchup in the CFP rankings with the Tigers ranked No. 10. This game could end up deciding the SEC West champion, depending on how the game against Ole Miss plays out on Nov. 12.
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If the Crimson Tide can win out, it will likely face either Georgia or Tennessee in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta on Dec. 3. That is all but a must-win, too, if Alabama wants to reach the playoff again this year.
The loss to the Vols in October gave the Crimson Tide little margin for error.
"We can accomplish every goal that we’ve had starting at the beginning of the season," Alabama coach Nick Saban said after the loss. "There’s no room for error in the West. If we win out in the West, we can win the West and still have a chance go to the SEC Championship Game. But I think the key to the drill is you’ve got to learn from these experiences. You’ve got to learn from mistakes that you made. You never improve if you can’t learn from the mistakes that you made."
College Football Playoff rankings
- Tennessee
- Ohio State
- Georgia
- Clemson
- Michigan
- Alabama
- TCU
- Oregon
- USC
- LSU
- Ole Miss
- UCLA
- Kansas State
- Utah
- Penn State
- Illinois
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma State
- Tulane
- Syracuse
- Wake Forest
- NC State
- Oregon State
- Texas
- UCF