Joel Klatt calls out 'brand bias' in CFP committee's decision to rank Alabama over Tennessee

One of the most talked about decisions from the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings was the decision to put Alabama ahead of Tennessee. After all, the Volunteers defeated the Crimson Tide this year, meaning they’d likely have the head-to-head tiebreaker.

That’s what FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt argued, anyway.

Klatt addressed the controversial ranking during “Breaking The Huddle with Joel Klatt” on Wednesday, calling out the committee for a bias toward Alabama. He thinks Tennessee should have been ranked No. 6, but he didn’t seem surprised the CFP committee went the way it did.

“If you really wanted to get into the nitty gritty, two teams I saw play each other, they have the exact same record, one beat the other and yet, the committee is telling me that the team that lost that game is six and the other team is seven,” Klatt said.

“Tennessee should probably be six, but listen, whatever. It’s Bama and they’re going to get the brand bias pretty much in every single case as long as Nick Saban is still there.”

Boo Corrigan explains decision to rank Alabama over Tennessee

Much of the debate on Tuesday night outside of the top four was between Ohio State and Alabama. Whoever was placed in the No. 5 role would have the best chance of making the College Football Playoff if someone in front of them slips up in a conference championship game. The Buckeyes got the spot and will now wait and pray.

CFP committee chair Boo Corrigan explained putting Alabama over Tennessee, saying the “whole body of work” was the ultimate decider. While head-to-head is something they look at, Corrigan and the committee did not think it was enough to place the Volunteers ahead.

One, it was very much debated amongst the committee, and a lot of conversation around that,” Corrigan said on a post-rankings reveal teleconference. “The value of head-to-head is certainly one of the
criteria that we look at.

“We’re looking at a full body of work, and when you look at their two losses by Alabama, including one on a last-second field goal to Tennessee, and then you’re measuring — somewhere in there, you’ve got to measure the loss that Tennessee had to South Carolina, and as we went through that, that was part of the determination as to why to have Alabama ahead of Tennessee.”