re: It appears people ACTUALLY thought Alabama would not make the playoffs

You say Bama gets the benefit of the doubt and it is due to bias? I would say Bama has earned the benefit of the doubt over the years. I could cite numerous examples of this but a large bias also exists against Bama too based off their success. So when it comes down to it one "bias" is earned...the other is baseless and due to, bottom line, jealousy. The solution is to fix your own damn team and stop hating on Bama's success as a program.