CFP chair Hunter Yurachek explains surprising Alabama decision over team that beat it

The Tennessee Volunteers beat the Alabama Crimson Tide 26-10 on Oct. 17, and both teams are 6-2. When the College Football Playoff selection committee released its first rankings Tuesday night, the team that lost stood at No. 5 and the team that won stood at No. 13.

“Yes, they had that loss to Tennessee. But Tennessee doesn’t have that same level of quality wins. Yes, they beat Alabama, but you have to go deeper,” committee chair Hunter Yurachek said of finding Tennessee’s next-best win.

The credit list for Alabama ran through the No. 6 Kentucky Wildcats, the No. 21 South Carolina Gamecocks and a 56-23 result at the Mississippi State Bulldogs, who were 4-0 that day with quarterback Kamario Taylor available.

Yurachek also explained why the Crimson Tide’s two losses, to Tennessee and the No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs, cost them so little.

“We are not over-penalizing teams for losses that the committee thinks highly of. As we speak today, a loss to an Alabama or Tennessee or Georgia is not on the same level as an unranked team. Those three teams have several wins against teams the committee thinks highly of,” Yurachek said.

ESPN Analytics rates Alabama’s schedule as the seventh-hardest in FBS, and seven of its eight opponents are at .500 or better.

Brandon Marcello of CBS Sports found the same lean across the conference, with all six two-loss SEC teams landing higher in the committee’s order than in the AP and coaches polls. He tied the pattern to the strength-of-conference data the league pushed for.

Does Alabama’s resume hold up against the teams below it?

Alabama is 2-2 against the committee’s Top 25, and six teams below the Crimson Tide have better records against that group. Kentucky, directly behind Alabama, is 2-1 with wins over the No. 14 LSU Tigers and South Carolina. Its one loss came by 28 points against Alabama in Lexington, and the committee placed those two teams in the same evaluation group, or pod, which is how the result came into play.

“When you’re trying to compare teams head-to-head, they have to be in the same pod to be compared head-to-head,” Yurachek said.

Under that rule, Alabama’s win over Kentucky protected the Crimson Tide from a one-loss team, while Tennessee’s win over Alabama did nothing comparable for a team with the same record. The Volunteers lost 27-24 at South Carolina and also lost to the No. 7 Texas Longhorns, and those results give the committee a reason to separate the two teams.

Eight spots is a long way to keep the winner of a 16-point game from ever getting that comparison.

Alabama visits LSU on Saturday, and a third loss would put the panel’s tolerance to the test right away. The Crimson Tide made last season’s field with three losses, so a defeat in Baton Rouge would hurt without necessarily ending anything. A win would keep them in line to host a first-round game, which on the current bracket means the Boise State Broncos coming to Tuscaloosa on Dec. 18 or 19.

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