The Auburn Tigers were said to be a "bad" team that the Alabama Crimson Tide didn't deserve to leapfrog the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Miami Hurricanes in the post-Week 14 College Football Playoff rankings for defeating 27-20 in the Iron Bowl this past Saturday night.
That was Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde's read on the situation, anyway. Forde doesn't believe a single person on the CFP selection committee should've been impressed with Alabama for defeating a now-5-7 Auburn team.
"It’s a rivalry game, sure. And an especially difficult rivalry game for Bama when it’s in Jordan-Hare Stadium. But that doesn’t mean the Tide should get bonus points for beating a bad team," Forde wrote.
"Auburn is 5–7 and fired its coach weeks ago. Scraping past the Tigers with a tiebreaking touchdown in the final four minutes shouldn’t have impressed anyone, but apparently the committee was smitten."
Forde would go on to say that CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek's explanation for why the Tide were so impressive -- about how they held a 17-0 lead in vaunted Jordan-Hare Stadium in the first half -- is built on tropes that don't apply to the Tigers' current situation.
As Forde pointed out, "The Tigers went 3–4 at Jordan-Hare this season, 0–4 in SEC play. They lost 10–3 at home to 5–7 Kentucky, which was otherwise winless on the road and lost its other three road games by an average of 23.7 points."
An impressive win, so impressive it supersedes the Irish and Canes, the 2025 Iron Bowl was not.
CFP committee will always protect big brands...is Auburn a big brand?
The Texas Longhorns hopped ahead of the Vanderbilt Commodores despite owning one more loss. The BYU Cougars were set up to be eliminated from the field if they lose to the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
If you're not a big brand, the committee is not protecting you. Alabama, by virtue of being one of the six major revenue producers in the sport, along with Notre Dame, Texas, the Georgia Bulldogs, the Michigan Wolverines, and the Ohio State Buckeyes, will always get this sort of protection.
Luckily, since beating Auburn on the Plains means a big jump in the rankings, it appears AU's brand is in good shape as well.
We'll see if Alex Golesh could finally have the Tigers in the discussion in 2026. Since he had the USF Bulls in the discussion this season, it's far from an impossible task.