Alabama #5 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings

The College Football Playoff committee has spoken, and Alabama checks in at #5. The full rankings:

Here’s what chair Rob Mullens had to say about the top five on the CFP Teleconference:

LSU has four wins against top-20 teams, the most of any team in the nation. LSU’s win on the road against Alabama was impressive. Its offense is explosive. LSU is ranked No. 1.

Ohio State is ranked No. 2. It continues to play at a consistently high level on both sides of the ball. They’re an excellent team.

Clemson is also dominant on both sides of the ball. Although its schedule is not as strong as some others, Clemson is an excellent undefeated team. They have gained more than 500 yards of offense in each of their last five games. The committee is impressed with what it sees.

Georgia, with wins against both Florida and Notre Dame, put them at No. 4 in the rankings this week. The committee spent a lot of time comparing Georgia and Alabama. In the end, Georgia’s two wins over ranked teams made the difference in the No. 4 spot. Alabama clearly is a strong team, but the committee gave the edge to Georgia.

If you read the entire transcript linked above, it’s pretty awkward for Mullens, the Oregon athletic director. He is required to recuse himself and thus has no information about how his team was perceived. It is telling that they used a resume tiebreaker for Georgia and Alabama, though. That means that they view the teams pretty evenly.

One team that should be ranked is Texas A&M. FPI has them at #17 in the country and SP+ has them 20th. They have three losses: Clemson by 14, Auburn by 8 and Alabama by 19. Leaving them completely out of the top 25 is baffling and means that Alabama and Clemson have zero ranked wins currently. Still, the committee says they are looking for “the four best” teams and cited Clemson’s statistical dominance.

Go be dominant, Bama.

Roll Tide.