Alabama football learns new CFP ranking entering SEC championship

The Alabama Crimson Tide will head into their SEC championship bout with the Georgia Bulldogs in a better standing in the eyes of the College Football Playoff selection committee than they were a week ago.

In the committee's new CFP rankings unveiled Tuesday evening, Alabama moved up one spot to No. 9. The Crimson Tide moved ahead of No. 10 Notre Dame and remain one spot behind the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners.

If the season ended today, Alabama would be the No. 9 seed in the College Football Playoff and travel to Norman, Oklahoma, for a matchup against the Sooners, who defeated the Crimson Tide, 23-21, on Nov. 15.

Alabama defeated Auburn, 27-20, in the Iron Bowl in Week 14 last week behind a 6-yard Ty Simpson touchdown pass to Isaiah Horton on fourth-and-2 with less than four minutes remaining. Safety Bray Hubbard forced an Auburn fumble that linebacker Deontae Lawson recovered with 33 seconds to play.

Alabama (10-2, 7-1) is ranked No. 10 in this week's US LBM Coaches Poll. The Crimson Tide will play Georgia at 3 p.m. CT Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The game will be televised on ABC.

Alabama football résumé, case for CFP berth

Alabama owns four head-to-head wins against teams that were ranked in the top 25 at the time. That was part of a brutal four-game stretch from late-September through mid-October that saw the Crimson Tide beat then-No. 5 Georgia in Athens, followed by wins over Vanderbilt, Missouri in Columbia, and the Tennessee Volunteers.

The committee previously dropped the Tide six spots for their two-point loss to a fellow top-10 opponent in Oklahoma in Week 12.

The only other loss on Alabama's schedule is by far its ugliest: a 31-17 loss to Florida State to open the season at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee.

Bottom line for Alabama

Bottom line? As with every other year, Alabama does not want to leave its postseason fate into the hands of a notoriously unpredictable committee.

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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: CFP rankings: Where Alabama football is ranked entering SEC title game