The College Football Playoff Committee is backed into a corner after the Southeastern Conference Championship Game.
Nick Saban and Alabama turned in the final piece of its resume, and it is the ultimate trump card.
The Crimson Tide earned a 27-24 victory over the Georgia Bulldogs, ending its 29-game winning streak inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Alabama has four victories over schools in the CFP Top 25 rankings when they played them, including three victories by double digits. Georgia came in as the No. 1 team in the country, and Alabama took it down — giving it a victory that no one else has on its resume. The Tide is not the same team that lost to Texas in week two, and the CFP Committee has to see it. The committee has taken several aspects into perspective since its origin in 2014, including a team’s progression from start to finish.
No one has made more improvement than Alabama since its loss to the Longhorns. The Tide has won 11 straight games since then, helping Coach Saban to his ninth SEC Championship for the program.
Alabama remains unbeaten at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and Saban is 5-1 all-time versus Kirby Smart. The playoff is about having the four best teams in the field, and Alabama showed who it is by defeating a two-time defending national champion in a game where it was a 6-point underdog.
The SEC Champion has never been left out of the CFP, and the Tide isn’t trying to be the first to do it.
We will see what the committee does now, but Alabama has it in a corner after defeating Georgia.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
