Dan Orlovsky: Alabama should not be in College Football Playoff, cannot win national championship

ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky claimed Alabama should not be in the College Football Playoff and isn’t picking them to win the national title. He’s fine with Miami getting in over Notre Dame, but said the Crimson Tide getting in over the Irish was the wrong move by the CFP committee.

Alabama stayed at No. 9 after losing 28-7 in the SEC Championship to Georgia. BYU, who was out to begin with, moved down after losing the Big 12 title game 34-7 to Texas Tech.

Because of that move, Alabama was safe, Miami ended up being next to Notre Dame and got in via their head to head win. But Orlovsky questioned the decision making of keeping Alabama in the field.

“I’m 100% on board having Miami in because of that head to head point, but Notre Dame should have been in over Alabama,” Orlovsky said on Get Up. “I understand the three losses, SEC title game, don’t penalize, let’s get rid of title games for conferences if they don’t matter. And we’re not going to penalize teams. Alabama hasn’t played good football in a month. When I was on a Friday show, I said, ‘Man, if Alabama gets boat raced, I would leave them out. They got boat raced. I mean, they were down 21 it’s the third quarter with like, three minutes to go. It’s fourth and one of their own 40. They punted. 

“Why do you think they punted America? So they don’t get smoked by more. They didn’t look good in that game. They didn’t look good against Auburn. They didn’t look good against OU, shoot, they didn’t look good against LSU like five weeks ago, I think Notre Dame, unequivocally, is a team that people can sit there and say, yes, they can win a national title. The way Alabama has played, they are not a team right now, at least in the last four or five weeks, they’re not a team that can win a national championship.”

Alabama instead gets into the College Football Playoff for the first time under Kalen DeBoer. The No. 9 Tide will hit the road for a rematch at No. 8 Oklahoma, whom they already lost to.

“But every game is its own game. You learn from it,” DeBoer said. “We understand them. They understand us. This is the third time meeting in just a little over a year, and so, it’s going to be a physical game. It’s going to be hard fought. I know it’s going to be an awesome environment, especially on a Friday night to kick off the playoffs.”