Alabama Sneaks in College Football Playoff, Who Tide Will Face in First Round

Kalen DeBoer leads the Crimson Tide to the playoffs in his second season at Alabama.

Alabama football players giving a pep talk before warm ups of the SEC Championship on Dec. 6, 2025. | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

Alabama is back in the College Football Playoff. Even with the 21-point loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, the Crimson Tide earned the 9 seed in the College Football Playoff and will face No. 8 Oklahoma on the road in Norman on Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. CT for the opening round matchup.

The winner will face No. 1 Indiana in the quarterfinals at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1. The winner of that matchup will advance to the Peach Bowl semifinal on Jan. 9, and the national championship will be in Miami on Jan. 19.

𝗜𝗡.#RollTide pic.twitter.com/o4F3aAXGhU

— Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) December 7, 2025

The Crimson Tide is one of the final two at-large spots in the field alongside 10 seed Miami. Notre Dame is the first team left out of the playoff. Alabama did not move down at all in the committee's rankings after losing to Georgia.

"We evaluated all those conference championship games and felt like in the end, regardless of Alabama's performance yesterday, their body of work in those first 12 games where they had probably the best win, arguably this season, winning at No. 3 Georgia, having the win against Vanderbilt, win against Tennessee as well," CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek explained the reasoning for Alabama's spot in the field during ESPN's selection show.

It followed the precedent of not punishing a team that was already in the field for losing in its conference title game.

The matchup with Oklahoma is a rematch from the regular season when the Sooners beat the Crimson Tide, 23-21 in Tuscaloosa back on Nov. 15. Alabama nearly doubled up Oklahoma in total yardage, but lost the turnover battle by three.

Alabama is one of five SEC teams in the field alongside Georgia, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Oklahoma. The Big Ten had three schools with Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon. Texas Tech is the lone Big 12 representative, and Miami is the only ACC school. Tulane and James Madison entered the field by winning their respective conference title games in the American Conference and Sun Belt.

This marks Alabama's first appearance in the 12-team CFP but ninth appearance overall, the most of any team. It is also Kalen DeBoer's first time with the Crimson Tide, but he led the Washington Huskies to the CFP championship game in 2023 before coming to Alabama.

Alabama went 10-2 (7-1 SEC) in the regular season, clinching the top seed in the SEC before getting throttled by Georgia, 28-7, in Saturday's SEC Championship game. However, the Crimson Tide's best win is a road victory at Georgia in the regular season. It also has a ranked win over Vanderbilt, who fell a few spots short of its first ever playoff appearance.

Final CFP Seeds

1. Indiana (13-0)
2. Ohio State (12-1)
3. Georgia (12-1)
4. Texas Tech (12-1)
5. Oregon (11-1)
6. Ole Miss (11-1)
7. Texas A&M (11-1)
8. Oklahoma (10-2)
9. Alabama (10-3)
10. Miami (10-2)
11. Tulane (11-2)
12. James Madison (12-1)

THE STAGE IS SET FOR THE 2025-26 PLAYOFF 🏈🏆#CFBPlayoff pic.twitter.com/GPoYiE5YmQ

— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) December 7, 2025

Alabama's previous CFP appearances

Year	Result
2014	Loss to Ohio State in semifinals
2015	National Champions
2016	Loss to Clemson in championship game
2017	National Champions
2018	Loss to Clemson in championship game
2020	National Champions
2021	Loss to Georgia in championship game
2023	Loss to Michigan in semifinals

This story will be updated.