Three And Out: Alabama In The Drivers Seat As We Hit Championship Weekend

We have reached championship weekend – one of the greatest weekends in sports. It’s crazy how time flies. It feels like only yesterday that I was in Ireland covering Georgia Tech vs. Florida State in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.

Needless to say, there’s a lot going on both on the field and off of it, from the College Football Playoff rankings to conference championship games to the coaching carousel, there’s no shortage of fun.

Let’s break down the weekend win this week’s edition of Three and Out.

Lies, Lies and Lies

The penultimate College Football Playoff rankings came out on Tuesday, and brought clarity to the 12-team field. Essentially, Alabama will claim the final spot as long as SMU beats Clemson in the ACC Championship Game. If the Tigers pull the upset, it’ll be a debate between the Tigers and Crimson Tide.

NORMAN, OKLAHOMA - NOVEMBER 23:  Quarterback Jalen Milroe #4 talks with head coach Kalen DeBoer of the Alabama Crimson Tide after a receiver was ruled out of bounds on the 11-yard line instead of scoring a touchdown against the Oklahoma Sooners in the first quarter at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on November 23, 2024 in Norman, Oklahoma.  (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)

Tuesday night, CFP selection committee chair Warde Manuel confirmed as much in a teleconference.

"We know which teams have beat which teams who are playing in championship games, and so we've already evaluated how those teams have played throughout the season," Manuel said. "Them beating somebody else at this point in time adds to the resume of the two teams, the one who wins, the one who loses in the championship game, but it doesn't change our evaluation."

Hm, that’s funny. Here are quotes from previous CFP selection committee chairs about how they approach EVERY WEEK.

Here’s Boo Corrigan in 2022:

"We’re going to go through each week with a clean sheet, look at every team, continue to evaluate, continue to compare statistically (and) continue to compare their schedules,"

Here’s Rob Mullens in 2018:

"That's the beauty of this process. We start with a clean slate every week, and we get a new set of results, and that blank sheet of paper is very helpful for just that, because things change throughout the year. Next week when we come in, we'll have a clean sheet of paper with another week's set of results."

Here’s Jeff Long in 2014:

"We start from scratch each week and evaluate small groups of teams against one another and create the rankings through seven rounds of voting. The committee is a group of college football experts whose task each week is to take a fresh look at the rankings 1-25."

It’s almost like … and just hear me out … brand matters and the committee is protecting Alabama at all costs.

SMU Is Teetering

The ACC Championship Game holds all the cards for the remaining spot in the CFP. If SMU wins, there’s no doubt that Alabama gets that spot. However, if Clemson wins and steals an automatic bid, the debate will shift to SMU vs. Alabama.

Could SMU fall behind Alabama in that hypothetical situation?

SMU’s Roderick Daniels Jr. scores a touchdown against Louisville this Saturday.Oct. 5, 2024

"Potentially, yes," said Manuel.

Nonsense. SMU ran the table in conference play, it’s only loss was to No. 18 BYU (when SMU switched quarterbacks from Preston Stone to Kevin Jennings) and has looked dominant ever since. Simply put, it’s unfair for a team to play its way into the opportunity to win a conference championship only to have the College Football Playoff slip through its hands with a loss in what essentially amounts to a "bonus game."

Get Ready For A New Coaching Dynamic

I’ve spoken with several coaches who think that there will be many in the industry – generally older head coaches – who will essentially take early retirement over the next few years. Why? The calendar is just too much.

It’s championship week, the transfer portal is open, National Signing Day is Wednesday and the hiring process is in full swing. Oh, and those are things called games to prepare for, some of which are playoff games.

It’s just too much. Coaches already bailed on multiple bowl practices last season in order to get things done on the administrative side, and I have had multiple coaches tell me that the only day off they had between the end of the season and February’s National Signing Day was Christmas.

We saw a precursor to the mass exodus of coaches from college when Jeff Hafley left Boston College to become an assistant with the Green Bay Packers and Chip Kelly left UCLA to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

Expect more of it in the days, weeks, months and years to come.