Why Alabama Shouldn't Be Ranked No. 4 in the College Football Playoff

Prior to the season, I picked Alabama to win the College Football Playoff Championship Game.

I still think Alabama will win the College Football Playoff Championship Game.

I think Alabama will run the table, get help with a loss by Ole Miss and win the SEC Championship Game.

Despite all of that, there's no reason why the Crimson Tide should be ranked fourth in the first edition of the 2015 College Football Playoff rankings.

Head coach Nick Saban's crew chimed in at the No. 4 spot on Tuesday night, behind only No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 LSU and No. 3 Ohio State, to the surprise of many.

Are you kidding me?

There's no reason for Alabama to be ranked higher than undefeated "Power Five" teams like Baylor, TCU or Michigan State.

Losses matter, especially home losses. Whether Alabama passes the eye test or not, it still lost at home to Ole Miss—a team that is ranked 18th in the CFP rankings.

In fact, it's a wonder how Florida is ranked six spots behind Alabama, based on a comparison of the resumes of the two SEC powers.

Florida's only loss came on the road to No. 2 LSU by seven points in a game in which Florida fought tooth and nail with backup quarterback Treon Harris, who was thrust into action the week of the game due to the suspension of starter Will Grier. Its loss was at night, at home, to those Rebels—a team that Florida beat at night, at home, 38-10, in a game that really wasn't as close as the score indicated.

Stat	Alabama	Florida
Best Win	No. 19 Texas A&M (road)	No. 18 Ole Miss (home)
Only Loss	No. 18 Ole Miss (home)	No. 2 LSU (road)
Sagarin SOS	9th	15th
ESPN SOS	3rd	6th
ESPN Strength of Record	2nd	4th
CFP Ranking	4th	10th

Alabama's best win? Spare me the talk of "top-10 Georgia and Texas A&M on the road." 

Yes, those teams were ranked in the top 10 of other polls at the time they played, but the Aggies are 19th in the first edition of the CFP poll, and Georgia is an abject disaster.

"If you go look at Alabama and how they won those games that they've won against quality opponents, and I think that sends a strong message of why we ranked Alabama higher than Florida," CFP selection committee chairman Jeff Long said in his teleconference Tuesday night.

Give me a break.

Should LSU get credit for beating a "top-25 Auburn team" when it throttled the Tigers—who sit at 4-4 right now—during Week 3? 

Of course not.

Butch Dill/Associated Press

Let's talk about what's really at play here: The CFP selection committee releases rankings in the middle of the season to program the sport for entertainment purposes.

It'll never outright admit that, but the human element is alive and well in that board room in Grapevine, Texas, and the members know that No. 2 LSU visits No. 4 Alabama this weekend, and one will fall out next week. Just as they knew No. 3 Auburn and No. 4 Ole Miss played the week after the first rankings last year. 

They know that the Big 12—which has Baylor at No. 6, TCU at No. 8, Oklahoma State at No. 14 and Oklahoma No. 15—essentially has a round-robin tournament among top contenders in the month of November.

"[Oklahoma State] still needs to play some stronger teams at the end of their schedule, and that's coming up for them, as well, so they'll get a chance," Long said. "Their overall strength of schedule thus far is not very high, so I think that's resulted in Oklahoma State being ranked behind Baylor and TCU."

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Panic set in when Alabama was listed in the No. 4 slot, and even more when you looked one spot below to find fellow one-loss traditional power Notre Dame.

If the selection committee wants people to take it seriously, it has to place important things—you know, like wins and losses—ahead of the eye test and subjective metrics like "talent" and "eye test."

Alabama's presence in the top four indicates that it doesn't, which means that these weekly rankings should be taken with a grain of salt.

Or for what they really are: a programming device.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics are courtesy of CFBStats.com.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.