Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Kalen DeBoer’s team is now 7-1 heading into the regular season’s final month following a nail-biting 29-22 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia.
DeBoer survived a 31-17 loss to the Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee, and the media hoopla that came with it, in Week 1 to engineer one of the most impressive runs in college football since. Now, he’s got enough cushion to actually lose another game without risking a berth in the SEC Championship, since they’re undefeated in SEC play.
“Alabama could afford a loss over its final four games and still make the SEC title game. The Tide are favorites to win the SEC for a reason and could have a spot in Atlanta clinched with wins over LSU and Oklahoma,” Yahoo Sports’ Nick Bromberg wrote.
Alabama owns the head-to-head tiebreaker on the only other one-conference-loss team in the running, the Georgia Bulldogs, and they’d have the strength of schedule advantage over the Ole Miss Rebels.
Alabama AD Greg Byrne aware of new landscape with 12-team CFP
Alabama AD Greg Byrne admitted recently that he doesn’t expect DeBoer’s teams to win every game like Nick Saban’s did throughout his 17 years in charge.
"...It's a good culture. It's one -- will we win every single game we want to win? Nope, we'll lose one or two that maybe shouldn't at some point. I'm not saying every year, but it's gonna happen. But we'll also win some games, and we'll win those games based on the hard work and resiliency that we're showing, and that's what you got to look at long term," Byrne said to The Athletic.
Evidently, the 12-team CFP field gives programs some breathing room. Not every season requires a perfect record any longer, so teams aren’t going to strive for them as intensely. The 2024 Oregon Ducks showed how far a perfect record takes you in the CFP.
Sometimes, losses in the regular season could be good for a team. Losing to the Michigan Wolverines in Week 14 last year got the Ohio State Buckeyes right. Ditto for Alabama in 2023 after losing to the Texas Longhorns.
We’ll see if DeBoer’s Tide can afford one more before the second season begins.