Alabama Football: Crimson Tide's Road to Making the College Football Playoff

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nick Saban doesn’t want to hear about your playoff rankings. Not yet at least.

“To me, none of it matters,” Saban said on Tuesday night, shortly before the release of the inaugural rankings. “What does it matter? It only matters where you end up at the end. What matters to us is how we do in each and every game that we have that we have to play. We have four games left to play. If we can be successful in those games, maybe there's a chance that we would play in the SEC Championship Game as well.”

Alabama still has plenty of work left to do this season, so Saban is right to give such a dismissive answer. At this point, the playoff rankings could only serve to take his team’s focus away from winning its remaining games, without which, the playoff talk for Alabama becomes moot.

The Crimson Tide, actually, would be a favorite over the rest of the playoff field.

But a loss to Ole Miss still makes things a little tricky to actually get there.

Let’s take a closer look at where Alabama goes from here.

Record	Playoff Committee Poll	AP Poll	Coaches Poll	Strength of Schedule
7-1	6	3	3	7

Biggest Obstacles to Playoff Berth

Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

Alabama has four games left, two of which are against the No. 1 and No. 3 team, according to the playoff committee. Another one is a road, night game against LSU.

Not exactly a walk in the park.

But the remaining slate could end up being a blessing more than a curse. Alabama has a chance to significantly bolster its resume over the last four games. Right now, its biggest win is West Virginia, ranked No. 20 by the playoff committee and really hitting its stride in the Big 12.

And winning would not only help its playoff argument significantly, but it would knock off, on its own, two teams ahead of it in the playoff race.

In theory, if Alabama is ranked No. 6, and if two teams ahead of it lose, the Crimson Tide would be in at No. 4, right?

That would appear to be the case on the surface, but it might not actually work out that way. Which brings us to our next point.

Help Needed

Brian Bahr/Getty Images

Should Ole Miss win out, Alabama would be left out of the SEC championship, and thus be denied the opportunity to win its league, something the College Football Playoff says it values. If Florida State wins out, that leaves two more spots.

Should teams like, say, Oregon and Michigan State win out and win their respective leagues at 12-1, that would mean three teams battling for the last two positions. Would Alabama get one of those? Would the committee put it in ahead of a one-loss, conference champion?

Alabama would rather not leave that up to chance.

To avoid this scenario, Crimson Tide fans should hope, first and foremost, for an Ole Miss loss. That would give the Rebels two losses and put Alabama squarely in control of its own destiny and, subsequently, its playoff destiny. (That would also, though, require Alabama fans to cheer for Auburn this week, in a cruel twist of fate.)

Otherwise, Alabama should hope that as many of the one-loss teams outside of the SEC lose as well. That would include Oregon, Michigan State, TCU, Notre Dame, Kansas State and the like.

Prediction

All of this discussion becomes irrelevant Saturday night.

Ole Miss loses to Auburn, opening up the SEC West for Alabama to claim. It wins a close game in Baton Rouge, takes care of Mississippi State easier than most thought it would.

That sets up an epic Iron Bowl two weeks later that will once again decide the SEC West. Alabama gets its revenge on Auburn, sending it to the SEC Championship Game. It wins another hard-fought game in Atlanta against Georgia, vaulting the Crimson Tide into the first ever College Football Playoff.

Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report.

Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.