It's fair to question Alabama's College Football Playoff legitimacy after lopsided SEC Championship Game loss

Alabama will almost certainly make the 12-team field, but it's going to be a lot closer than Crimson Tide fans expect

When the 12-team College Football Playoff field is unveiled Sunday afternoon, Alabama will almost certainly be included. That felt like an inevitability when the selection committee moved the Crimson Tide up one spot to No. 9 in its latest rankings, jumping a Notre Dame team that closed the regular season with a far more convincing rivalry win.

It probably doesn't matter that Alabama didn't look like it belonged on the same field as No. 3 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. The Bulldogs earned a rare breakthrough over their growing rival, rolling to a 28-7 win that was even more lopsided than the final score suggested.

Alabama rushed for minus-3 yards as a team and didn't eclipse 100 total yards until late in the third quarter. Though the Tide beat Georgia in the regular season, they've scored just seven points in their last six quarters against the Bulldogs.

It's almost impossible to imagine a scenario in which Alabama doesn't make the playoff, but it's fair to question whether the Tide actually deserve the honor.

"They are not (a Playoff team)," said Damien Harris, the CBS College Football analyst who was a two-time national champion at Alabama. "This Alabama team, specifically the offense, it did not look Playoff-caliber."

Alabama would become the first three-loss at-large playoff team and the first at-large team to suffer two double-digit losses in the same season. Alabama would be slotted ahead of several deserving two-loss programs, including No. 11 BYU -- which went 11-1 in the regular season and lost in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday -- and No. 12 Miami.

While teams like Notre Dame, Miami and -- before the postseason began -- BYU have played their best football since the committee started releasing weekly rankings, Alabama is trending the opposite direction. The Tide are 2-2 against FBS opponents since Nov. 1, averaging 17 points per game and surpassing 21 points only once.

They're also 0-2 against currently ranked opponents since Oct. 4 and have rarely looked convincing even in victory. An 11-point win over a rudderless LSU team and a narrow seven-point escape against an Auburn squad that finished with one SEC win hardly move the needle.

Alabama also carries the worst loss of any bubble team. The Tide were one of three Power Four teams beaten by Florida State this season. Their only saving grace is that the 14-point defeat came in the opener; had it occurred in November, Alabama would be out of the discussion entirely.

The offensive collapse is the biggest culprit. Kalen DeBoer's group cannot consistently run the ball without Jam Miller, and even with him, the ground attack is unreliable. Alabama ranks 13th in the SEC in rushing at 126.2 yards per game.

Quarterback Ty Simpson shares some of the blame. He once looked like a legitimate Heisman contender, but he has been largely ineffective over the past month. He threw his fourth interception in as many games in the SEC title loss to Georgia and failed to complete 50% of his passes. Simpson is averaging 160.3 passing yards over Alabama's last three games. He's not solely responsible for Alabama's position on the bubble, but the Tide offense as a whole looks pedestrian against comparable competition.

There's no telling which direction the selection committee will go — even if its recent decisions strongly suggest Alabama won't fall out. But the Tide are far from the undeniable juggernaut many believed them to be earlier in the season.