Heather Dinich breaks down multiple paths for Alabama to make College Football Playoff

The penultimate College Football Playoff rankings came out on Tuesday night. There, Alabama moved up one spot, going just past Notre Dame, to now be ranked No. 9 nationally.

It would seem, with just the SEC Championship to go, that Alabama is safe to make the Playoff. However, ESPN’s Heather Dinich warned against assuming that the Crimson Tide are a lock. Instead, as she explained on Get Up, losing the wrong way could still be costly to Alabama.

“I would say Alabama has margin for error,” Heather Dinich said. “But I’m not going to call them a lock. The reason why is because I’m at the Gaylord Hotel, where they have these meetings, and I remind everyone, it is the only time that they watch these games together as a group. If, for some reason, Georgia is beating Alabama like it beat Texas, when the committee dropped them to 17 after they beat them 35-10, how the game unfolds matters.”

Alabama already beat Georgia this season. So, a loss would be balanced out. On top of that, the Crimson Tide would be suffering their third loss in an extra game. Those are the basic reasons why most people expect Alabama to be in the Playoff regardless. Still, it’s worth being careful and avoiding getting blown out on Saturday.

“That’s why I’m not calling them a lock,” Dinich said. “Because they watch it. They stand up, they go to the next room, and then they vote on it. If it’s a close game, I think Alabama is safe and I think that was an indicator at No. 9, but again, how it happens matters.”

Had the rankings released on Tuesday been the final rankings, the entirety of the Top 10 would be in the Playoff field. That ends with Notre Dame at No. 10. After that, there need to be two more conference champions added, though both are ranked lower than the Top 12. On top of that, if BYU beats Texas Tech to win the Big 12, they would likely steal a seed, and both Big 12 teams would presumably be in the field.

In all of this, it’s better if Alabama wins the SEC and locks up its spot that way. The Crimson Tide know that too, and defensive lineman Tim Keenan already shared that their goal is to keep the Playoff decision out of the committee’s hands.

“We’re a 10-2 team in the SEC,” Tim Keenan said. “We go out and play hard. Of course, it’s the SEC Championship. It’s a big deal. We’ve already beaten this team before. We’re going to go out there and make sure we do the same thing, but we’re going to make sure we handle business on our own end and not leave it up to the committee to make decisions for us.”

Kickoff for the SEC Championship Game is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, December 6th. The game will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.