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Going into the North Carolina game, Clemson was ranked #1 in the AP Poll with 1543 AP Points that week. Following a narrow, 1-point victory, Clemson fell to #2 but their AP Points dropped to 426..... that's a 117 point drop (nearly 2 spots per voter) for a 5-0 defending champ because of a close win that shouldn't have been so close.

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In 2017, Alabama played a 7-2 Mississippi State team that went toe-to-toe with Bama for the entire game. This was a State team with zero impressive wins and two completely lopsided defeats against the two decent teams they had played (losses combined for 67 point deficit) . State led 24-17 with 10 minutes to play, and Bama didn't score the go-ahead touchdown until 25 seconds left in the game.

State was 7-2 with 2 losses to Top 10 teams and ranked in the Top 20 at the time.

North Carolina was 2-2 and coming off a loss to Appalachian State.

On top of that - it was early in the year with 6 other undefeated options. In 2017, the other undefeated options were Miami and Wisconsin - teams who had shown far more flaws than Alabama.

So, not really comparable at all.

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In 2016, Alabama went to Oxford to face Ole Miss... a team that was 1-1 on the season. The Rebels enjoyed a two touchdown lead in the first half. Ultimately Bama held on to win 48-43.

Alabama entered #1 in the AP Poll with 1520 points. The next week they stayed #1 with 1,510 points. Only 10 of 62 voters felt the need to drop them a spot on their ballots.

Ole Miss was ranked #19 in the country and their only loss to that point was against what was, at the time, #2 ranked Florida State in a close game.

So again, not really the same thing.