It was always a setup. Its starts preseason when they put all the SEC teams in the top 10.
You knew the fix was in when Heather Dinich was lobbying for a 3 loss SEC team before Alabama had 3 losses. She works for ESPN and is the spokesperson for the CFP committee. Talk about conflict of interest.
The week before the horrible Alabama loss to Oklahoma, the CFP committee promoted Alabama 3 spots for beating FCS Mercer. I knew right then it was a setup fot thr SEC. The next week they lose to Oklahoma 24-3. Had they not been promoted the previous week, they would have been out of the CFP dropping to 14th-16th range.