Alabama’s CFP spot controversy continues to dominate the weekend season discussion. Kalen DeBoer and his team have had a tumultuous season so far, to the point where fans almost gave up on the playoffs. But there was light at the end of the tunnel. Even a day before the Tide stepped into the Iron Bowl game against the Tigers, it looked pretty insignificant. But their massive win in the Byrant Denny stadium legit mounted a much-needed push in the Tide’s tottering resume and earned them a No. 11 spot in the latest CFP chart. However, the rest of the CFB world refuses to buy this theory. They see clear favoritism by the committee in choosing Bama over Miami. Despite CFP committee chair Warde Manuel clearing the air on the subject, NBCSports’ The Dan Le Batard Show found a point to counter.

Miami fans and veterans have been mad at the committee for kicking them out of the box and placing Alabama on the 11th instead, ignoring DeBoer’s nasty losses against teams like Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. Even if you’re far from a Miami fan, you will likely have some problems with the unnecessary Bama push. The weekend looks like chaos, and the Canes can’t believe what just happened. To validate their grievances, a group of CFB analysts on the Dan Le Batard show added a few more reasons to lash out.

Contradicting the CFP’s logic, co-host Mike Ryan Ruiz vented out,

”What about the teams that are at .500, Warde? What’s Alabama’s record there? I’m really surprised that I guess people just really hate Alabama more than they hate Miami because it feels like the nation is starting to realize like, ‘Hold up that Oklahoma loss?’ Wait, Miami lost to Syracuse to bring them to two losses in the year. We’re going to punish that more than we’re going to punish Alabama’s loss to, still, a really bad Oklahoma team.”

Getting some legs up from the decision-makers isn’t anything new for Alabama football, nonetheless. They just lived up to their trend this year. This is something Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin predicted this unwritten rule in his previous sound-off. But nothing can justify the sports’ dubious power structure.

Jessica Smetana chimed in,

“I think that Alabama gets the benefit of the doubt because they’ve proven this season that their ceiling is higher because they’ve beaten Georgia, and Miami hasn’t gotten the chance to play a team like Georgia, and they haven’t gotten a chance to beat a team like Georgia.” It’s all on the schedule, and Canes are simply cheated.

The veteran analyst argued that Georgia looked miserable against Georgia Tech and that a win wasn’t enough to respect them and the team (Alabama) that beat them earlier in the season. Building on more against the Alabama favor, Mike continued the rant,

”CFB usually considers, and that’s common opponents. ‘All right, so you have a Miami team that has a better record than Alabama. They both played a USF team. I know September does not exist in the eyes of the SEC, but in September, they both played USF. Who looked better against USF? Miami did. So it’s unfortunate that we just keep shifting the barometers in which we do.”But despite all the discomfort, it’s just Warde Manuel’s way of telling the world, look, it is what it is, and you can’t just hope for a change for the teams who aren’t scheduled for the SEC week.

Manuel Warde batted for Alabama’s mooted No. 11 spot

On ESPN, chair of the selection committee Manuel Warde revealed the reason behind Bama getting an edge over Miami. He blamed it on the strength of the schedule and not just the narrative of the two wins vs. three wins. He argued that Bama played a tougher schedule than the Canes. Alabama is 3-1 against the current top 25 teams, where Miami crumbled at 0-1. Alabama had a 6-1 record against teams above .500, where Miami scores 4-2 in the same category.

While both of the teams had their respective bad days when you looked at the last three games, Miami dropped the ball twice against Georgia Tech and Syracuse. Whether it was worse than the Tide’s frustrating fall against the Sooners or not is, however, a subject to debate, but the committee gives them a nod. Full and final. They felt Kalen DeBoer and his squad deserved the flower more, adhering to their body of work.

However, despite the alleged brand bias and favor, Bama’s playoff spot still hangs in the balance as an SMU loss can still loosen their footing.