CFP Chair Explains Latest Rankings, Alabama's Spot in Bracket Compared to Tennessee

The new College Football Playoff rankings were released Tuesday, and one of the first things that jumps out is two-loss Alabama being all the way up at No. 3 and ahead of undefeated UCLA, a number of one-loss teams and a two-loss Tennessee squad that beat the Crimson Tide in their head-to-head matchup.

CFP chair Hunter Yurachek addressed Alabama's position, especially compared to Tennessee, during an interview on ESPN (h/t Mike Rodak of 247Sports) and highlighted its strength of schedule.

"They're No. 1 in record strength, No. 1 in schedule strength," he said of the Crimson Tide. "They have four what we call quality wins because we continue to call that win against Mississippi State earlier in the year when they had Kamario Taylor on their team, they were 4-0. Alabama went there and won that game. Alabama we believe deserves to be the No. 3 team in the country."

He continued and said, "Alabama was in that first pool. Tennessee was not in that first pool. Tennessee has got a couple of quality wins—the win they just had at Kentucky and obviously the win they have against Alabama. They have three wins against teams their schedule strength is 110 and above.

"When you look at their schedule compared to Alabama's schedule, the committee feels like—and so do the metrics—that Alabama has got a stronger schedule. That's why Alabama was in that first pool of teams and Tennessee was not."

Alabama's victories over Kentucky and South Carolina from September have aged well, as both teams are ranked in the top 17. What's more, it handled LSU with relative ease on the road on Saturday, and the Tigers are still in the rankings at No. 21.

As for the Volunteers, they have notable wins over Alabama and Kentucky.

While the Crimson Tide are ahead of Tennessee for now, that could very well change by the end of the season if both teams continue to win. After all, Notre Dame was ahead of Miami for the majority of the CFP rankings last season despite the Hurricanes' head-to-head win just for Miami to jump the Fighting Irish in the final ones.

Tennessee's strength of schedule is also more difficult moving forward, as it plays Texas A&M on the road and then LSU before finishing with Vanderbilt. Alabama, on the other hand, faces Vanderbilt, Chattanooga and Auburn.

As long as the Volunteers keep winning, they will likely eventually pass the Crimson Tide when they are in the same pool of teams and the head-to-head becomes more important.

For now, though, there are likely some Tennessee fans who are not thrilled their team is behind Alabama despite a 26-10 head-to-head win.