What College Football Playoff Committee Chair Hunter Yurachek Said About Alabama

"Following the championship games, we will rerank the top 25 teams, and we'll see where they fall."
Hunter Yurachek

The College Football Playoff committee released its penultimate rankings on Tuesday night, moving Alabama over Notre Dame for the first time since the Crimson Tide lost to Oklahoma in November.

Alabama has won two consecutive games since falling to the Sooners, including a rivalry game win over Auburn in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Fighting Irish are currently enjoying a 10-game winning streak since stumbling twice to open the 2025 season, but have no more games remaining on the schedule.

The Crimson Tide has one more game remaining, the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta against No. 3 Georgia. Will Alabama be safely in the field at No. 9 if the program loses an extra game? Can the Crimson Tide move up and earn a bye by beating the Bulldogs? Committee Chair Hunter Yurachek wouldn't commit to any outcome and instead promised to re-rank every team, while using conference championship weekend as another data point to analyze.

Where CFP Committee Ranks Alabama Before SEC Championship Weekend

Here's what Yurachek had to say about the Crimson Tide on Tuesday night to ESPN and on the College Football Playoff conference call.

Why did Alabama jump ahead of Notre Dame in this week's rankings?

"The debate between Alabama and Notre Dame over the past three weeks has been one of the strongest debates we've had in the room for the past two years that I've been a member of the committee. I think this week, as we looked at those two teams and how closely they have been over the past three weeks, Notre Dame went on the road, had a strong win at Stanford, but Alabama went on the road and a rivalry game looked really good, especially in the first half, getting up 17 to nothing, ran the ball well. Auburn came back at them.  They had a great gutsy call on fourth-and-2, late in the third quarter to get a touchdown and then got the turnover late in that game. And I think that was enough to change the minds of a couple of committee members to push Alabama up ahead of Notre Dame in this week's rankings.

You know what the question is going to be, is that you're not going to want to have a team losing the SEC Championship game and get bumped out if, say, BYU wins the Big 12.  Did that come up in the room?

"It did not, Reese. We will evaluate the results of the championship game after they're all completed over the weekend."

As you look at Alabama, as they go into the SEC title game, what do you need to see from the Crimson Tide, regardless of outcome in the SEC championship, to ensure that they make the final bracket here?

"It's hard to look ahead to say what we need to see from them. The easiest thing to see from them would be a win, obviously. We will judge all of the conference championship games when they're completed, the results of them, and then rank the teams one through 25 accordingly. So it's hard for me to say specifically what the committee would be looking for from Alabama. They're in a really solid position, this week at number nine, got an opportunity in their conference championship to give us another data point."

Following up with what Reese was asking you, just for broader clarification, since he was asking specifically about Notre Dame and Miami. But in a broader sense, because of what Warde Manuel said last year, I wanted to clarify can 10-18 presently outside the 12-team field, that do not play in a conference championship game, move into the field. Is that possible?

" Yes. Idle teams can move based on the results of the championship games, and there may be something that happens in a championship game that impacts an idle team. Whether that's their strength of schedule or some other data point that we use. There could be a team that suffers a significant loss in the title game. We don't try to predict what's gonna happen, but yes, teams can move within the rankings as we re-rank them one last time this weekend."

To follow up, related but in a broader sense also because Warde Manuel said last year that the committee would not use it as a negative for teams who lose conference title games, obviously, that they could perhaps move down, but not, you know, he said negative. Obviously, SMU stayed in the field even with the loss. Is the committee open to dropping conference title game losers, specifically as it relates to Alabama and BYU? Or are they locked in even with a loss?

"Again, each of the championship games will just give us another game and another data point to evaluate the teams that participated in those championship games, and the idle teams around them. We will re-rank the teams, one last time this weekend. And the five highest rank conference championships and the seven highest rank at large teams will advance to the college football playoffs."

For the last couple of weeks, you've talked about how the committee really focused on Alabama's loss to Florida State as a really important factor in how you ranked them among the two loss teams. I'm wondering what about a win over a five-and-seven Auburn team, which I know is one of the metrics, is teams above .500 or below .500, what about that was enough to offset that bad loss and move them ahead of Notre Dame?

"That debate between Notre Dame and Alabama has been one of the fiercest debates for the last three weeks, and it really has split our committee room. We've got people that thought highly of Alabama -- we all think highly of both of those teams, but some are very much in Alabama's camp, some are very much in Notre Dame's camp.

"It's just Alabama in a rivalry game on the road. Auburn has been an extremely tough place to play for many teams this year, such as Georgia and Vanderbilt, and the committee gave Alabama a little respect for winning that game, getting out early 17-0. The game got tied again, and Alabama, a gutsy call there late in the game to go for it on 4th and 2 and then getting a turnover again late in the game. The committee just felt like that was enough of a win, of a metric, to push Alabama ahead of Notre Dame."

I'd like to go back to Alabama and get your perspective on how highly they can move up with a win and if they can move out of the playoffs with a loss, what the stakes are really for Alabama if they can move into a top-4 bye situation or out with a loss to Georgia?

"I can't answer that question until I watch the game on Saturday and see how Alabama plays versus Georgia. It's impossible for me to -- and the committee to predict what could happen with a win or a loss. They've got another great opportunity, another metric that other teams do not have."