CFP rankings: Can Miami, South Carolina, Ole Miss still jump Alabama? What CFP chair said

Nothing is finalized yet, but Alabama football sits on the doorstep of the College Football Playoff.

The CFP rankings released Tuesday night fell exactly how the Crimson Tide needed them to fall. Alabama moved up to No. 11 after winning the Iron Bowl. That means, if the season ended today, the Crimson Tide would own the No. 11 seed and head to South Bend, Indiana to face Notre Dame.

The most significant part of Tuesday’s reveal was that Miami fell to No. 12 after it lost to Syracuse. Also, Ole Miss was ranked No. 13 and South Carolina was put in the No. 14 spot.

One of the biggest questions heading into the rankings Tuesday night was where these four teams would be ranked. Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina are all 9-3 and won’t play another game before Selection Day. Meanwhile, Miami is 10-2 but doesn’t have a top 25 victory.

It doesn’t sound like the order of these four teams will change, no matter what happens this weekend in conference championships.

“Any team that is not playing right now, we don’t have a data point to rearrange where we have those teams ranked,” CFP chair Warde Manuel said on ESPN. “That is set in terms of how we see them going into the final week of championship week. There’s nothing that’s going to change for us to evaluate any of them differently than we have now.

“Those teams who are not playing cannot be adjusted in terms of where they are compared to other teams that are not playing. But the championship teams, we will evaluate that data point to determine if there needs to be any movement based on how the performance of the game goes.”

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.