The College Football Playoff selection committee is taking a wait-and-see approach with the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The defending SEC champions are No. 5 in this week's rankings, meaning there's been no impact — thus far — following Tua Tagovailoa's season-ending injury suffered on Saturday on Mississippi State.
College GameDay analyst Kirk Herbstreit said Tuesday night he believes the Pac-12 champion with one-loss will potentially leap the Crimson Tide in the committee's final poll.
"Alabama is a little bit of a wild-card right now with a big part of their offense obviously Tua," Herbstreit said. "Tua now out. We'll see how Mac Jones does. I view Alabama is somewhat of a holding pattern until we see them with Mac Jones. It's very difficult to penalize them. I'll call Alabama as a placeholder right now."
Jesse Palmer and Joey Galloway both suggested the winner of the Pac-12 title game must win by a sizable margin to convince those 13 members on the committee that Utah or Oregon is better than Alabama.
"Alabama needs that kind of win (over) Auburn with Mac Jones to have any shot," Palmer said.
"I believe Oregon, right now tonight, is a better football team than Alabama without Tua," Galloway said.
Here's everything Kirk Herbstreit said after the selection committee's third College Football Playoff Top 25:
"This is what logical minds thought you would see. I don't think it's fair to necessarily punish Bama for the injury to Tua. I think you have to sit and wait to see how they perform in their game against Auburn. I personally felt whether with Tua or without Tua, Alabama eventually will be on the outside looking in. This isn't that Bama team that you just say on the eye test, 'They're just better than everybody else, even with Tua.' I felt that, because of how young they are on defense without Dylan Moses."
"You look at the Big 12, Oklahoma and Baylor. Oklahoma did not get the bounce and recognition (we were expecting) from the committee for that win. Where are they going to make the move? They still potentially have Oklahoma State and maybe Baylor in the Big 12 Championship Game, but is that going to be enough to get to the final four? Right now, the Big 12 is on the outside looking in."
"I don't know if I could personally take anything away from a Week 1 college football game when you don't have any preseason games for any teams. You show up ready to play against a good football team. I get it's the same opponent, but I don't get you can hold a lot of weight from Week 1 to Week 12. Yeah, it's the same opponent for Oregon and Auburn and Alabama and Auburn, but I can't take a whole lot away from, 'Hey, Bama beat them by 24 and Oregon lost to them, so that means Bama is better.'
"I don't use that logic personally."
"I really felt the last couple weeks we were trending toward 11-1, meeting in Pac-12 Championship Game with a lot on the line to the winner. We're talking alot about Auburn and how much they've improved with Bo Nix, but Oregon was banged up in the opener, especially at wide receiver. Think about how that defense has performed. They've played much, much better than where they were at the beginning of the year. They're a very different team. They've just grown. Continuity has grown. And the thing about Utah and Oregon? Who cares. More than likely, they're going to play each other, so that one is going to work itself out. That team that wins will eventually emerge, whether it's Oregon or Utah. It's going to work itself out."
"We're going to see how Penn State has an opportunity this week on the road to avenge last time they went on the road against Minnesota."
"There was so much buzz after they knocked off Penn State. We all thought they're going to Kinnick and can they brace themselves for an emotional game a week later, obviously but they couldn't get it done. It was still a close game and I was wondering how fall they'd drop.
"The committee was put in a tough spot when Penn State lost to Minnesota two weeks ago. Then, today, you have Minnesota losing to Iowa and now Penn State is ahead of them. Playoff chair Rob Mullens mentioned that head to head is one component. All of us get so caught us in head to head being a deal-breaker. Mullens brought up non-conference, even brought up Pitt, a good non-conference win. It's all equal in the minds of the committee."