Joel Klatt breaks down path for Alabama to reach College Football Playoff

FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt can envision a path for Alabama to make the 12-team College Football Playoff field, but it doesn’t come without chaos in the ACC.

Despite the 13th-ranked Crimson Tide falling out of the mix in the latest CFP Top 25 following a disastrous 24-3 loss at Oklahoma, Klatt laid out a circuitous path for a three-loss Alabama (8-3) to back into one of the final at-large bids when the definitive rankings are revealed on Selection Sunday.

Before anything though, the Tide must handle its business against Auburn in Saturday’s 89th Iron Bowl, and hope for No. 3 Texas to knock off its own hated in-state rival, Texas A&M, in College Station.

“The first thing they need is, I believe, a Texas win over Texas A&M,” Klatt said Wednesday on his podcast. “The last thing that you need is for the SEC to get more jumbled. … You don’t need Texas A&M jumping in there and being part of that fray with a massive win over a team like Texas that the committee values in the Top 3 in the country. You don’t want that at all.”

Then the Crimson Tide faithful need to pray for anarchy within the ACC, especially if involves No. 9 SMU (10-1) and No. 12 Clemson (9-2), both currently ahead of Alabama in the CFP Top 25.

“The next thing Bama needs is the ACC to fall off. Because right now it looks like the ACC has a path towards two teams (in the CFP field), not just one,” Klatt continued. “So what needs to happen? I think they need South Carolina to beat Clemson, or they need SMU to totally collapse, or they need Miami to totally collapse. So they need two of those three to fall by the wayside.”

With the No. 15 Gamecocks and Tigers kicking off at 12 pm ET on ESPN, Alabama could already know the first part of the equation when the Iron Bowl kicks off at 3:30 pm ET on ABC.

Meanwhile, SMU hosts fellow ACC newcomer Cal at 3:30 pm ET on ESPN2 and then advances to play either Miami — which plays at Syracuse on Saturday — or Clemson — if the Tigers beat South Carolina AND Miami loses to Syracuse — in the ACC championship game next week in Charlotte.

“I think the most likely is a South Carolina win against Clemson, that’d be No. 1, and then Miami really taking care of business against SMU and knocking them way back out of there. Maybe it’s even (combined with) a Cal win over SMU,” Klatt added. “If those two things happen, if the ACC loses that second bid based on any amount of chaos that happens with those games, and Texas beats Texas A&M, now I think Alabama actually does have a path.”

ESPN insider Heather Dinich also believes there’s an outside shot for the Tide to back into to the College Football Playoff, citing several other Week 14 upsets and “a prayer.”

“So you can name your upsets here, but they need at least two — Miami losing to Syracuse, Notre Dame (losing to) USC,” Dinich said, “whatever way you want to stack it up, they need lots of help and a prayer.”