Playoff committee was close to voting Alabama #1 over Clemson |
The College Football Playoff committee actually debated moving Alabama (11-1) ahead of Clemson (12-0) in Tuesday's College Football Playoff rankings.
Playoff chairman Jeff Long described the process about determining who was the elite team in the nation. "The committee debated long and hard about the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams," Long said. "Clemson is again ranked No. 1, but it was close and indeed very close. They both have impressive bodies of work. Clemson is 6-0 against teams with winning records including two wins against teams in this week's top 10. Alabama is 8-1 against teams with winning records. While that is an impressive résumé, Alabama has not played a team in the current top 10. Clemson's undefeated record was also clearly a factor." It was so close that Long assumed Alabama would be ahead of Clemson in the final voting. "We had a number of revotes, and there were times in the meeting I actually thought Alabama was going to be voted ahead of Clemson," Long said. "But they were not." Long said that Clemson's rivalry victory against South Carolina was not impressive due to a mediocre South Carolina team. "Well, we had additional pieces to the résumé," Long said. "We saw a Clemson team struggle against a South Carolina team, that same South Carolina team that beat North Carolina at the beginning of the year. Clemson struggled with a 37-32 win there. That team is a 3-9 team. And then we saw Alabama play an Auburn team in a rivalry game and win that game, so those are two more pieces to those résumés that allowed us to look deeper into that No. 1 and No. 2 ranking." #2 Alabama is 11-1 and will face #18 Florida at 3 PM on Saturday in the SEC Championship game. The #1 Tigers will face #10 North Carolina at 8 PM on Saturday in the ACC Championship game.
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