Heather Dinich explains scenario where Alabama, Miami both miss College Football Playoff

Alabama and Miami came in at No. 11 and No. 12, respectively, in the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday evening. That would make the Crimson Tide the last at-large school to make the 12-team field, while the Hurricanes would be the first left out.

However, that isn’t exactly set in stone with conference championship games still to be played. ESPN senior writer Heather Dinich pointed out it’s still possible that Alabama could be left out as well if enough chaos happens with the teams ranked below it.

“I want to take a minute to remind people that these first-round byes can change,” she said on ESPN’s rankings reveal show. “I also want to point out down at the bottom, we have 11 Alabama and 12 Miami. We keep talking about the 12th team getting left out for that fifth-highest ranked conference champion, which is absolutely correct, Arizona State. But if you have multiple conference champions ranked outside the committee’s top 12 — and you see down lower in the ranking where you have Clemson, you have Iowa State, you have Arizona State, you have UNLV.

“If you have two of those that still need to get into this bracket on selection day, guess who’s out? Not just Miami, Alabama too. So you could have the 11th and 12th team bumped out for the fourth and fifth-highest ranked conference champion.”

No. 8 SMU is set to play No. 17 Clemson in the ACC Championship. Most project the Mustangs to win, securing the lone bid from the conference.

However, if the Tigers pull of the victory, it would force a situation where they earned the automatic bid and give the committee a decision to make with the Mustangs. It could drop SMU below Alabama and keep the Crimson Tide in the playoff, that isn’t a guarantee.

If the Mustangs play a close game and lose, the committee may still decide to grant them an at-large bid ahead of Alabama.

Dinich also mentioned the possibility that UNLV could beat Boise State in the Mountain West Championship. However, in that case, one would have to imagine the Crimson Tide would jump ahead of the Broncos.

Regardless, it’s still far from a sure thing that Alabama punches its ticket to the Playoff. The Crimson Tide will be big SMU fans on Saturday and as long as the Mustangs win, should feel good about their chances.