Nick Saban and the Alabama football program are underachieving by Crimson Tide standards in 2019, but they’re still headed for a great bowl game.
The College Football Playoff was still in their reach after losing to the LSU Tigers, but falling to Auburn has pushed that dream past Alabama’s outstretched arms. And with their regular season over and failing to make the SEC Championship Game, the Crimson Tide is forced to play the waiting game. Where will their bowl invitation come from?
Each conference still has bowl ties and affiliations that must be met, so a handful of bowls are already off the table. Unless something absolutely bonkers happens, the Crimson Tide won’t reach the CFP — that rules out the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. The Rose Bowl still slots a Big Ten team vs. a Pac-12 team, so that’s automatically out as well.
What will the 2019 Alabama bowl team even look like, though? With Tua Tagovailoa out, will Mac Jones look better after multiple weeks of practice as the No. 1 quarterback? Will he still have all those offensive weapons or could some skip the game with thoughts of not wanting to get injured prior to entering the 2020 NFL Draft?
Regardless, there are still a couple big bowl games the Crimson Tide could receive invites to, but they’ll all feel like scrimmages for fans that are used to the high stakes of the College Football Playoff. We’ve got three potential bowl destinations, though, starting with a matchup that will certainly garner plenty of attention from Crimson Tide fans.