Greg McElroy reveals how CFP committee could justify leaving SEC champ Alabama out of Top 4

Greg McElroy believes it’ll be easy for the College Football Playoff committee to justify leaving Alabama outside of their Top 4, even if they win the SEC title game.

Evidently, it all comes back to the Crimson Tide’s loss to the Texas Longhorns. McElroy believes the CFP committee has already shown their cards on the potential dilemma.

“There is,” McElroy said, regarding if there’s any question as to whether Alabama gets in with a victory, via ESPN’s Get Up. “The elephant in the room is the fact that one of the teams Alabama is being measured against has the head-to-head, that would be Texas. If Texas is able to win against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Big 12 Championship Game … they have the head-to-head against Alabama. They went to Tuscaloosa in Week 2 and won the game. The committee, their goal is to put the four best teams, but they don’t do that. They take the path of least resistance. The path that’s easiest to justify.

“They can tell me all they want about, ‘It’s the four best teams.’ Well, your actions speak so loudly I don’t hear what you say. Frankly, what they’ve shown me over the last ten years is that they’ll put the four best teams based on what they can justify, and I think Texas beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa is very easy for people to grasp and comprehend. So I think Texas would have the edge over Alabama based on what the committee has done up until this point.”

Alas, McElroy’s comments from Friday echo what he said earlier in the week, where he stated his belief that the Crimson Tide are certainly not in control of their own destiny.

“Alabama is not in control of their own destiny regardless of what they do,” McElroy, a former Alabama quarterback, said. “And that’s a really uncomfortable thought. And frankly, there is a possibility — and we talked about this too — there is a possibility that the SEC could get left out because of the amount of quality that is in other leagues. 

“There is a really wide-open race right now for those four playoff spots and you can make a compelling argument on behalf of eight teams. That includes ‘Bama. That includes Texas, and Ohio State, to be honest with you, even though they would probably have the eighth weakest argument to be made. … “Not this many teams that have been tested and have been quality and have been playing at a high level.”

According to Greg McElroy, Alabama fans should be rooting just as hard for Oklahoma State as they do for the Crimson Tide on Saturday. We’ll see how it all shakes out for Alabama over the weekend.