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Alabama Football: Who has best shot to dethrone the Crimson Tide?

By John Mitchell

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 08: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide holds the trophy while celebrating with his team after defeating the Georgia Bulldogs in overtime to win the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 8, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 08: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide holds the trophy while celebrating with his team after defeating the Georgia Bulldogs in overtime to win the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 8, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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The first College Football Playoff rankings are out and Alabama football holds a familiar spot at the top. Which teams have the best shot at dethroning the Crimson Tide?

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney summed it up best on Tuesday night when talking about the gap between Alabama and everyone else during an interview with ESPN:

“The reality of it, it’s like back when I was a player they had kind of the big time bus then they had the ROY bus, the rest of y’all. It’s like Alabama and the rest of y’all right now.”

Part of Swinney’s statement can be attributed to him playing up perennial contender Clemson as a big underdog, knowing that once again it’s Alabama that will stand in the way of the Tigers and a national championship. Swinney knows this better than anyone, having played Nick Saban’s juggernaut in the last three college football playoffs, going 1-2, and winning the thrilling 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship Game on a last-second pass from Deshaun Watson to Hunter Renfrow.

As good as Clemson has been, they’ve still been chasing the crimson rabbit along with every other team in the country. Nick Saban has built a long-lasting dynasty in Tuscaloosa that has been on an unprecedented run of success through this era of college football.

Alabama has won five of the last nine national championships, including two of the last three, and has participated in all four college football playoffs to date. Since 2008, Alabama has won 10+ games in every season, and haven’t finished a season ranked lower than 10th in the AP poll. They’ve amassed a ridiculous 133-14 record over the last decade, with no signs of slowing down.

The scary part is that this might be Nick Saban’s best Alabama team to date, with a transcendent quarterback taking the reins in sophomore Tua Tagovailoa. Adding the best quarterback in college football to the Tuscaloosa Death Star seems unfair considering Alabama’s run of destruction with even mediocre QB play over the years.

Now the Crimson Tide is the ultimate weapon, and every other contender in college football is going to have to figure out a way to stop it or crimson and white confetti will be falling once again at the end of the season.

At this point in the season, there seems to be 12 teams with a shot at making the college football playoff, unless mass chaos ensues over the final month of the regular season. Those contenders all sit in the Top 13 of the initial CFP rankings, and I would flip-flop West Virginia for Florida. I don’t think the Gators have a realistic shot at the College Football Playoff with two losses and no way of playing themselves back into the SEC East race. If the Mountaineers won out, they would jump Florida anyway with wins over Texas, Oklahoma, and one of them again in the Big 12 Championship game.

Let’s take a look at all 11, and why they could, and why they won’t, dethrone Alabama, in order of the likelihood I see them being able to do so:

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