What Kalen DeBoer thinks of Alabama football CFP ranking

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Kalen DeBoer didn’t watch as the latest set of College Football Playoff rankings were released. The Alabama football coach said the rankings popped up on his phone. He took a look. And he went back to work.

After falling to Oklahoma 23-21, Alabama fell to No. 10 in the latest set of CFP rankings, right on the edge of the cut line for the 12-team playoff with two games left against Eastern Illinois and Auburn.

Alabama has ranked wins against Georgia, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Tennessee, each of which were ranked in the top 25 when the Crimson Tide secured the wins.

Yet, Alabama was ranked behind Notre Dame, another two-loss team that has two losses against teams ranked in the top 13 of the latest rankings. Alabama also had a season-opening loss to now-unranked Florida State.

“Those are two really good 8-2 teams,” Arkansas athletics director and CFP chair Hunter Yurachek said. “But I think you look at the losses of Notre Dame and the losses of Alabama and that was really one of the defining metrics that we used.”

DeBoer is confident in Alabama’s CFP résumé, even if it’s not something he’s paying much attention to.

“I just know we have a ton of quality wins, DeBoer said on the SEC coaches teleconference Wednesday, Nov. 19.

DeBoer added he knows the CFP committee looks “strongly at the losses,” but that Alabama has “shown consistency and improvement throughout the year.”

Alabama will face Eastern Illinois at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22 on SEC Network+.

Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: What Kalen DeBoer thinks of Alabama football CFP ranking

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