Week 13 Anger Index: The case for Alabama to be ranked higher - ESPN

With two weeks left in the regular season, the playoff picture is coming into focus. At this point, the top six teams in the rankings seem like near locks. The ACC and the Group of 5 will supply champions, too, whether the Big Ten likes it or not. The winner of a Week 13 showdown between USC and Oregon should be on track for a bid, and it's hard to imagine, at this point, that Notre Dame is left out, given its No. 9 ranking with just lowly Syracuse and Stanford left on the schedule.

Add it all up, and that's 10 of the 12 playoff spots already written in — well, if not in ink, at least a really dark pencil.

That leaves the teams still lurking on the periphery — Alabama, Oklahoma, Utah, Vanderbilt, BYU and Miami, chief among them — hoping each week that the committee will dig deep, focus on their strengths, set aside the occasional hiccups and value their ever-evolving résumés.

And each week, the committee just updates last week's rankings with a few small tweaks and is back at the airport in time to grab a Cinnabon before their flight.

So, yes, there are some nerves, some frustration, and a good bit of anger as we head toward the finish line of the 2025 season.

Would you believe that Alabama, Oregon and Notre Dame have combined for five wins against other ranked teams?

It's true.

Alabama has beaten No. 4 Georgia, No. 14 Vanderbilt, No. 20 Tennessee and No. 22 Missouri.

Notre Dame has beaten… well, only No. 15 USC.

And Oregon has a big win against… sorry, it just says «Error 404: Page Not Found.»

And yet, the Tide check in at No. 10 this week, barely on the fringe of the playoff, behind both the Ducks and the Irish.

Why? Because Alabama had the temerity to lose a game last week by two points — a game in which it missed a