Should Alabama Be No. 1 Team in College Football?

No. 2 Alabama capped off the 2015 SEC West title with a 29-13 win over intrastate rival Auburn in the Iron Bowl on Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium, but it didn't exactly earn any style points.

Sure, the 16-point win makes the bettors who took the Tide in Las Vegas happy, but a late touchdown aided that margin once the game was out of reach.

The Crimson Tide converted just five of their 16 third-down opportunities, allowed Auburn to hang around far too long thanks to red-zone struggles and polished off the Tigers late thanks to running back Derrick Henry's 271 rushing yards on a career-high 46 carries.

Will it be enough to propel the Crimson Tide to the top spot in the penultimate College Football Playoff poll Tuesday night?

SEC Network's Paul Finebaum thinks so.

Any win over an in-state rival is nice, but let's be real: There's no reason to jump Alabama over Clemson based on Saturday's performances.

College Football Playoff selection committee chairman Jeff Long commented on how close the second-ranked Tide were to top-ranked Clemson after last week's standings release on ESPN—and it isn't exactly looking like a photo finish at this point.

"We certainly looked in detail at Clemson and Alabama, but I would say that Clemson was solidly in that No. 1 spot, and there was no real indication that Alabama was going to challenge them for that No. 1 spot in this week's rankings," he said during the post-show teleconference Tuesday.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Make no mistake: Alabama struggled with its in-state rival Saturday afternoon—just as Clemson did in its 37-32 win over South Carolina, which featured a late touchdown with one second left that made the Gamecocks appear closer than they really were.

Keep in mind, though: Being the team playing its best football right now is not the same as being the team that deserves to be ranked No. 1. You could make the case that Alabama is playing the best football in the country at the moment, but it does not deserve to be ranked No. 1.

Losses matter, especially those at home to three-loss teams—which is exactly what happened to Alabama in its only defeat of the season, a Week 3 heartbreaker to Ole Miss.

Stat	Clemson	Alabama
W-L Record	12-0	11-1
Best Win	No. 6 Notre Dame	No. 21 Mississippi State
Best Loss	N/A	No. 18 Ole Miss (at home)
Top 25 Wins (as of Week 13)	2	1
SOS (entering Sat.)	21	1

Plus, when discussing resumes, it's not like Alabama's road to glory in the SEC is tough enough to negate a loss.

The Tide entered rivalry weekend with the toughest schedule in the nation, according to TeamRankings.com, but Clemson wasn't too far behind at No. 21. Alabama's only win over a team in the current Top 25 came against No. 21 Mississippi State (which will likely fall out of the top 25 after getting worked by Ole Miss), while Clemson topped No. 6 Notre Dame in October and No. 13 Florida State in November.

Sure, Alabama beat four teams that were ranked in the Top 10 at the time of the game—Wisconsin, Georgia, Texas A&M and LSU. But those teams have proved to be vastly overrated as the season has gone on. All Alabama did was expose that the Bulldogs don't have a quarterback, the Aggies are way too inconsistent and the Tigers in Baton Rouge were one-trick ponies.

Losses matter, and that loss to Ole Miss in September should prevent Alabama from jumping Clemson in this week's College Football Playoff rankings.

Butch Dill/Associated Press

That doesn't mean Clemson is better than Alabama right now, though.

The Tigers struggled with Syracuse on Nov. 14, didn't exactly look like world-beaters against Wake Forest and were pushed by South Carolina—one of the worst teams in the SEC.

That should have the world doubting Clemson's ability to polish off the perfect season and win the national title, but that isn't anywhere close enough to call into question its No. 1 ranking.

That should be solid, as Long said it was last week. Unless, of course, the committee decides it wants to mess with the college football world this week.

Stay tuned.

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.