Committee:
Bama lost, but also beat Georgia early in the year so they offset. The only other meaningful loss was Oklahoma who was a very good SEC opponent. Bama was the SEC-runner up, so they’re in at 10. This is a whole different Alabama team than the one who lost their opening game to Florida State so that doesn’t even count. They’re basically 10-1-1.
This conveniently matches the logic where Notre Dame’s head-to-head lost to Miami to open the season doesn’t matter. This is a whole different Notre Dame team than the one who lost their opening game.