Alabama Football: SEC Championship Game meaningless for Tide
Alabama football plays Georgia in a juicy SEC Championship Game that has no bearing whatsoever on the Crimson Tide’s College Football Playoff aspirations.
Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide held the No. 1 rank in the nation from wire to wire in 2018. It doesn’t matter if you’re referencing the AP Poll, the Coaches Poll or the College Football Playoff Rankings, no one had any doubts the Tide were the unquestionable best team in the nation.
That truth will remain regardless of the outcome of the SEC Championship Game on Saturday. Alabama plays No. 4 Georgia who will be fighting for their College Football Playoff lives. The Bulldogs already have a loss on the season (vs LSU) and can’t afford to stumble again if they want to remain in the final four.
The story for Alabama is quite the opposite — this game doesn’t matter at all. The cache built up by the Crimson Tide and the sheer impressiveness of all 12 of their double-digit victories thus far make Alabama a lock for the Playoff, win or lose. Alabama reached the Playoff and won the Championship without a conference title last year and they’re more than capable of hoisting the trophy without an SEC Championship Trophy, too.
If Alabama does lose they’ll be “fighting” for the fourth spot with a 1-loss Ohio State team that got blown out by Purdue and a 1-loss Oklahoma team that doesn’t know hot to play defense of any kind.
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Alabama was chosen over Ohio State last season and it’ll happen again if circumstances repeat themselves this year. Alabama would have lost to a Top 15 team after dominating the field. Neither Oklahoma or Ohio State have a resume that comes anywhere close. If the Tide stumble, they’ll open the door for two SEC teams in the Playoff once again. It might not be popular, but Nick Saban won’t get passed over.