Alabama football undeserving of apology for underdog status in SEC title

Following its big win over Georgia In the SEC title game, Alabama football is wanting an apology from doubters. The Tide don’t deserve one.

Random question: Let’s say an obese man goes to the doctor, and the doctor tells him to lose weight. After the man loses weight, does the doctor owe him an apology?

The answer to that question should hopefully be a resounding “no” since the doctor should obviously not be blamed for telling a patient to get in better shape when he/she actually needs to get into better shape. With that said, let’s tie this to Alabama football.

Going into the SEC title game last weekend, Alabama did not look championship-caliber in any fashion. They had an inexcusable loss, several struggles against heavily-flawed opponents, and were set to face the Georgia Bulldogs (who had looked virtually unbeatable all season long).

With these concerning observations came a lot of disparaging media buzz — or “rat poison” as some call it — surrounding Alabama. Folks all throughout the college football community (myself included) felt that the Crimson Tide had very little chance to survive and, as a result, the defending champs would not make it to this season’s playoff field.

How wrong all of us were, though. All year, there have been social media pundits expecting Georgia to fall apart in the big moment, and boy did they. After blowing an early 10-0 lead, the Dawgs were completely out of their element on their way to a 41-24 loss. Appropriately enough, that matched the result from the 2020 battle between the two SEC powers.

Now all Crimson Tide fans are waiting for an apology from the skeptics as if they’re some thrilling underdog story. But remember what we discussed at the very beginning: You cannot blame someone for accurately critiquing you in the moment.

Do people honestly think that Alabama would have been doubted like they were if they had looked like last weekend’s version of themselves all this time?

There’s the kicker: If the Crimson Tide want to be respected, they should play as if they deserve to be. That’s the unspoken rule that all other college football powers are expected to follow; Alabama’s image does not make it an exception.

Upon downing Georgia like they did, the Tide are now No. 1 in the playoff bracket, along with being the analytical favorites to win it all, which is certainly fair. But especially with how unimpressive they looked leading up to their big victory, saying “congratulations” does not equate to saying “sorry” — nor should it.