Greg McElroy defends Alabama making CFP, Rece Davis, Booger McFarland push back

Among the biggest debates entering Selection Sunday was how was the College Football Playoff selection committee going to evaluate Alabama‘s lackluster 28-7 loss to No. 3 Georgia in Saturday’s SEC Championship Game. Ultimately, the Crimson Tide’s setback in Atlanta proved moot as Alabama (10-3) held pat at No. 9 in the final Playoff rankings released Sunday, securing their record ninth CFP appearance this season.

Following the surprising development — even top-ranked Ohio State (12-1) dropped back to No. 2 following Saturday night’s 13-10 loss to new No. 1 Indiana (13-0) in the Big Ten title game — ESPN’s panel of experts discussed the CFP selection committee’s decision to keep Alabama at No. 9, which forced a final vote between No. 10 Miami and No. 11 Notre Dame for the Playoff’s final at-large bid.

Greg McElroy, a former Alabama quarterback, defended the committee’s decision and suggested the CFP’s 12-member group only evaluated Alabama based on its regular-season resume, completely taking Saturday’s result out of the equation. McElroy believes this was done because both the ACC’s Hurricanes and independent Fighting Irish were idle this weekend, and thus didn’t have a 13th data point like the Tide did.

“I think they clearly drew conclusions about Alabama based on a 12-game sample size, and that’s the way it should be evaluated when you take into account the teams they were being evaluated against, which had just 12 data points to evaluate,” McElroy said Sunday on ESPN’s College Football Playoff Selection Show. “So Alabama is in, they need to get back on track offensively, need desperately to get healthy, but they have an opportunity to avenge that regular season loss (to Oklahoma).”

No. 9 Alabama (10-3) moves on to play No. 8 Oklahoma (10-2) at 8 pm ET on Dec. 19 in their first-round Playoff game in Norman, a rematch of their Week 12 game in which the Sooners won 23-21 in Tuscaloosa.

“I understand the concept of not being overly punitive for a conference championship game,” ESPN host Rece Davis countered. “But if you’re going to play them, they need to have stakes. Both ways, for winning a conference championship, and what happens if you lose.”

Booger McFarland, a former LSU defensive lineman, doubled-down on Davis’ point, expressing utter shock the CFP selection committee would completely ignore Saturday’s SEC Championship game result. McFarland also pointed to the Crimson Tide’s Week 1 loss (31-17) at an unranked Florida State that finished 5-7 after falling off down the stretch.

“(Conference championships) have to count somehow,” McFarland added. “And we’re talking about Alabama maybe having the best win in the sport by going to Athens, but they also have one of the worst losses losing to Florida State. So we just can’t erase that. I’m surprised at this move right here.”