Many things are still up in the air heading into Week 13 of the college football season, including the SEC Championship Game picture where it appears Alabama football is on track to meet the Texas Longhorns at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Dec. 7.
Alabama moved up two spots to No. 7 in both the US LBM Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 poll after a 52-7 win over Mercer last Saturday. Jalen Milroe played for two quarters and change, throwing two touchdowns and rushing for one more. Milroe was 11-of-16 for 186 yards through the air and rushed six times for 43 yards.
The Crimson Tide got big games from freshman sensation Ryan Williams, senior tight end Robbie Ouzts, and many others en route to compiling 508 yards of total offense.
Alabama is 8-2 overall and sits at 4-2 in SEC play entering its final two regular season games. Kalen DeBoer’s team is hot at the right time, and they’re hoping to not only reach the College Football Playoff but make a deep run in the 12-team field once there.
The Crimson Tide were No. 10 in last week’s CFP rankings. The new rankings will be unveiled Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.
In the meantime, here’s what national college football writers and others in the sport’s media universe are saying about Alabama’s Playoff chances — and who they might face.
Expect Alabama to move up again in new CFP rankings
ESPN’s Heather Dinich ($) sees Alabama moving up in the rankings for the second straight week after debuting at No. 11 in the initial rankings. That would move Alabama into the No. 9 seed. Dinich projects Notre Dame to move up one spot, as well, to the No. 8 seed.
Dinich said of Alabama and Notre Dame:
“As an independent, Notre Dame can only earn one of the seven at-large bids because the five other spots are guaranteed to conference champions. That means the Irish can’t get a first-round bye, but they can get a home game, which happens in this scenario. This is arguably the most difficult part of the bracket because the winner has to play the No. 1 team in the country, and the (Oregon) Ducks will have been resting.”
CFP experts project new SEC champion entering Week 13
There’s a common theme among many college football analysts in their updated Playoff predictions entering this week: the Alabama Crimson Tide are their new projected SEC champion.
USA TODAY Sports’ Erick Smith sees Alabama as SEC champions, a week after he had the Crimson Tide in as an at-large berth.
Smith breaks down what’s changed since last week:
“Usually playing against Mercer doesn’t result in a team improving its College Football Playoff seeding. But this week’s bowl projections see Alabama rise into the No. 2 spot in the field as the Crimson Tide are forecasted as the SEC champions.
“The team Alabama replaces is Texas. While the Longhorns beat Arkansas, there are questions whether they can defeat both Texas A&M and the Crimson Tide away from home to secure the conference title. And the lack of quality wins on the Texas resume means its seeding slot should fall behind other contenders Georgia and Mississippi.”
Likewise, CBS Sports prognosticator Jerry Palm favors the Crimson Tide to win the SEC in his updated Playoff bracket and projections. Palm sees Alabama as the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff and playing its first 12-team CFP game in the Sugar Bowl.
Veteran college football writer Andy Staples also favors Alabama to win the SEC in his new College Football Playoff projections. Staples sees the Crimson Tide earning the No. 2 seed behind the top-seeded Oregon Ducks. He cautions that Alabama still needs to be on “high alert” in its final two regular-season games against Oklahoma this Saturday and against Auburn in the Iron Bowl on Nov. 30.
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Over at The Athletic ($), Stewart Mandel and Scott Dochterman see Alabama winning the SEC to get the No. 2 seed, as well. The two have the Crimson Tide facing the winner of a No. 10 vs. No. 7 seed game between Indiana and Georgia at Sanford Stadium in Athens. Ohio State was the duo’s projected No. 1 seed.
At-large berth in 12-team CFP wouldn’t spell doom for Alabama football
Over at 247Sports, analyst Brad Crawford favors Texas to win the SEC. But Crawford has much higher expectations for Alabama than just making the Playoff. He favors Alabama to go all the way to the College Football Playoff Championship (national title game).
To do so, he takes Alabama to win a first-round Playoff game against Notre Dame in South Bend, as well as a win over ACC champion Miami in the quarterfinal round in the Peach Bowl. From there, it’s on to the Orange Bowl for a rematch against the Georgia Bulldogs. Crawford sees Alabama beating the Dawgs to set up a CFP title game clash with the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Explains Crawford:
“Could the Crimson Tide run the table with Jalen Milroe and get to the finale as a possible double-digit seed? This is what makes the expanded playoff so unique — hot teams move on. Ohio State is the projected 1-seed here because we’re expecting the Buckeyes to get the better of Oregon in the Big Ten title game and then potentially beat the Ducks again in the playoff. That would be huge for Ryan Day.”
In his updated Playoff forecast, The Sporting News’ Bill Bender also sees Alabama facing Notre Dame in South Bend in the No. 9 vs. No. 8 seed first-round matchup. He sees Alabama winning that game, then beating Oregon in the Rose Bowl before falling to Ohio State in the semifinals in the Orange Bowl.
Notes Bender:
“(Ohio State’s) matchup with Alabama would be fitting, considering that was a semifinal in the first College Football Playoff in 2014.”
Lastly, ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura ($) also have the Tide as an at-large team in the Playoff, with Texas as their projected SEC champion. Both ESPN scribes have Alabama winning a first-round game and then falling to Oregon in the Rose Bowl.