Everything Alabama needed with three losses happened

Just a week ago, everyone rightly watched the Alabama Crimson Tide fall 24-3 on the road to mediocre Oklahoma and believed Kalen DeBoer’s team was done. The chances of reaching the SEC Championship Game went up in smoke, and probably the Tide’s chances of making the College Football Playoff as well.

What a difference several days could make.

While there was a lot of debate about whether a three-loss Alabama team deserved to still be in the 12-team CFP bracket, cooler heads told you that the Crimson Tide in the final week of regular season would need a lot of help this season to find their way into the playoff field.

But lo and behold, while Alabama got a comfortable win over the Iron Bowl, they also seemingly got the help they needed. Now the possibility that a team with three losses is still in the running for a chance at the national championship is not only mathematically possible, but perhaps even probable.

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While Ryan Day and Ohio State’s continued inability to play against Michigan isn’t helping Alabama’s cause much, a number of other results have paved their way. Of course, Bama winning the Iron Bowl is part of that equation, but they should also send a few Christmas cards to Fran Brown at Syracuse and Shane Beamer at South Carolina.

At the same time that the Buckeyes were upset with their rivals, the same was true for the Clemson Tigers at home against rival South Carolina. The Gamecocks came back furiously in the final minutes, taking a late lead and then outscoring Dabo Swinney’s team to take the 17-14 victory. This eliminates Clemson’s chances of a spot in the College Football Playoff and catapults the Tide up another spot, as a team previously ranked ahead of Alabama.

Additionally, the afternoon saw Mario Cristobal’s Miami Hurricanes head to Syracuse and get into a shootout. The U settled for a 42-35 field goal deficit and made it a four-point game. That proved to be a disastrous mistake as Miami’s defense was unable to get the Orange off the field, running out the clock and causing another upset on Saturday.

For Alabama, this is even bigger. Had Miami won and punched its ticket to the ACC Championship Game, there would have been a legitimate opportunity to keep an ACC champion SMU team and a two-loss Miami team in the CFP field over the Crimson Tide. Instead, the loss eliminates Miami from the playoffs entirely, giving Bama another path, especially since an SMU loss to Clemson still likely means only one ACC team will advance to the playoffs.

The only complicating factor for Alabama right now is South Carolina after the Clemson win. Although the Gamecocks are coming off a straight loss to the Tide with this win, South Carolina could potentially move past DeBoer’s team with a better record.

No losses for the Gamecocks (LSU, Ole Miss, Alabama) are as bad as Bama’s two worst at Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. Meanwhile, SC has also earned ranked wins (currently ranked teams) against Missouri, Texas A&M and now Clemson. The Tide’s ranked wins are limited to Georgia.

We’ll have to see how the selection committee views this as the final rankings are determined and the dust continues to settle on rivalry week and conference championship week. However, everything is turning out exactly as any Alabama fan would have hoped.