The 12-team field for the College Football Playoff will be announced on Sunday, and it looks like the Alabama Crimson Tide might be left out.
Alabama was ranked No. 11 and the Miami Hurricanes were ranked No. 12 in the latest College Football Playoff ranking. Both teams would have made the playoff based on those rankings, but things changed after Saturday.
Arizona State, which had been ranked No. 15, and Clemson, which had been ranked No. 17, both won their conference championship games. Both teams are automatically into the field, which means that two teams that were in the field as of Tuesday are now out.
SMU, which was previously ranked No. 8 and 11-1, lost in the ACC Championship to Clemson and is now 11-2. 10-2 Miami is likely out of the picture, which makes it a question of whether or not 11-2 SMU gets the final spot, or 9-3 Alabama.
At this point, most people feel like the 11-2 Mustangs will get in ahead of a 3-loss Crimson Tide team. Saturday’s defeat to Clemson was SMU’s first loss in conference play. Their other loss came at 10-2 BYU. Alabama lost to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma. Had they won one of those games, they would be in.
Even if Alabama gets left out, the SEC would still have three teams in the field; the Big Ten would lead the way with four teams, including Oregon at No. 1.
