its not just the eye test with bama. yes they have a loss, but they also have arguably the best win of the season beating lsu by 14. they beat georgia by 28 on the road when chubb was healthy. they have 2 wins over currently ranked teams and 6 wins over teams that currently have winning records.
even with a loss thats a better resume than teams that dont have the quality wins ala baylor, baylor has zero wins over teams with winning records. i feel i know more about a team that has played and beat good competition and may have dropped a game than a team that is undefeated and hasnt played anyone. its not a prediction ranking, alabama has done more to show they deserve to be in the top 4 than most of the undefeated teams. if those undefeated teams have quality wins on similar or equal footing to alabama then that loss by alabama comes into play and they should be ahead of alabama even if by the eye test bama is the better team.
they dont deserve a pass for their loss, but similar to ohio state last year their loss won't carry as much weight as the fact they beat michigan state by 12 on the road then destroyed wisconsin in the the big ten title game.