Why This Will Be the Most Chaotic Week for Alabama in CFP Rankings: Just a Minute

Welcome to BamaCentral’s "Just a Minute," a video series featuring Alabama Crimson Tide on SI's beat writers. Multiple times per week, the writers will group up or film solo to provide their take on a topic concerning the Crimson Tide or the landscape of college sports.

Watch the above video as BamaCentral basketball and football writer Hunter De Siver discusses an all-time week for college football.

Before every college football season kicks off, social media goes into a frenzy when one week's slate of games is better than the rest. We are now at that week.

The College Football Playoff committee released its initial rankings on Tuesday night, and Alabama surprisingly landed at No. 5 despite having two losses and being No. 9 in the AP Poll. If the regular season ended today, the Crimson Tide would host 12-seed Boise State in the first round of the CFP.

No three-loss team has ever made the College Football Playoff's 12-team field, but with Alabama so high up after two losses, there's reason to think that that trend could end should it drop another game to a quality opponent. That being said, Alabama will travel to LSU on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC, as the Tigers were ranked No. 14 in the initial CFP rankings. LSU also has two losses this season.

Oftentimes, the annual Alabama-LSU game is the host of ESPN's College GameDay show, but there are multiple ranked matchups receiving even more hype than this renowned SEC rivalry. Here's a look at the seven games set to create the most CFP chaos for the entire season.

Note: The ranks attached to each team below are from the CFP committee on Tuesday night, not the AP Top 25.

Best Games of College Football Week 10

No. 7 Texas (6-2) at No. 18 Missouri (6-2)
No. 9 BYU (7-1) at No. 3 Utah (8-0)
No. 23 Oregon (5-3) at No. 12 Ohio State (6-2)
No. 5 Alabama (6-2) at No. 14 LSU (6-2)
No. 6 Kentucky (7-1) at No. 13 Tennessee (6-2)
No. 2 Georgia (7-1) at No. 10 Ole Miss (6-2)
No. 1 Miami (8-0) at No. 11 Notre Dame (7-1)

Big-name players among these 14 teams: Arch Manning, Cam Coleman, Austin Simmons, Bear Bachmeier, Devon Dampier, Jamari Johnson, Koi Perich, Jeremiah Smith, Bo Jackson, Keelon Russell, Ryan Coleman-Williams, Sam Leavitt, Princewill Umanmielen, Kenny Minchey, DeSean Bishop, Xavier Gilliam, Gunner Stockton, KJ Bolden, Trinidad Chambliss, Suntarine Perkins, Darian Mensah, Malachi Toney, CJ Carr, Leonard Moore and many more.

Very few teams on this slate can afford to make a mistake. Even if a three-loss program eventually earns a spot in the 12-team field, every school has to assume that this week is win-or-go-home.

As for Alabama, three of the best wins of the Kalen DeBoer era have come off bye weeks. The Crimson Tide's season rests on a fourth coming this Saturday in Baton Rouge.

"Our staff does a really good job of kind of laying out a plan for our players," DeBoer said. Obviously, we all got to be on the same page, but we're taking advantage of it, not just letting it be time off, and something where, yeah, you've got to refresh mentally, but, you know, we're in it. We're in the season. Like, this isn't even close to the end."

This should be a game where if Alabama wins, the remaining contests on the schedule (Vanderbilt, Chattanooga and Auburn) should also result in victories

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok for the latest news

Add us as a preferred source on Google