Fox Sports college football analyst and broadcaster Joel Klatt made a prediction on whether or not the Alabama Crimson Tide will be in the final College Football Playoff bracket Sunday.
On the Thursday edition of his podcast, Klatt said that he saw Alabama as the No. 11 seed in the final CFP bracket and facing the No. 6 seed Ohio State Buckeyes in a first-round game in Columbus.
To get there, Klatt believes, Alabama will get the final at-large playoff berth over the SMU Mustangs. Klatt predicted that SMU would lose to Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers in the ACC Championship Game and that Alabama would win a playoff debate vs. SMU.
When comparing the Crimson Tide‘s resume to that of the Mustangs, Klatt said that Alabama had the better argument.
“Bama, their strength of schedule, far greater than SMU’s: 17th in the country vs. SMU’s being (No.) 75. I think that just honoring the fact that they got to their conference championship is not enough. Because in this era of superconferences, not every path to a conference championship game is equal. So, you’ve got to evaluate the path and… SMU’s path was very favorable, and that’s to put it lightly.”
Klatt noted that of SMU’s eight conference wins in the regular season, only two were against teams that finished above .500 in ACC play: the Louisville Cardinals and Duke Blue Devils.
“That’s just not tough enough,” Klatt said of SMU. “In my estimation, you can’t just blindly reward the fact that they were in a conference championship game because of that path. It’s just far different.”
By comparison, Alabama has three wins against teams that were ranked in the Top 25 at the time those games were played: vs. the Georgia Bulldogs, Missouri Tigers and LSU Tigers.
“I think in a direct comparison, SMU is going to lose the argument to Alabama. I really do,” Klatt said. “That’s why I told you (earlier) in the rankings reaction that Alabama was going to be in regardless and there they are as the 11 seed and going to Columbus to face the Ohio State Buckeyes.”
The final CFP rankings and official 12-team playoff bracket will be unveiled Sunday beginning at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN.
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Alabama news and notes, plus opinions.
This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Joel Klatt gives final prediction on whether Alabama football will make or miss the CFP
