The final stretch of the 2022 college football regular season is upon us. Alabama is 7-1 and is currently on the outside looking in when it comes to the College Football Playoff.
The one loss on the season came on a time-expiring field goal against Tennessee on the road in Neyland Stadium. The Volunteers are the top-ranked team in the first College Football Playoff rankings. Alabama sits at No. 6.
Only four teams will make the playoff to compete for a national championship. The Crimson Tide only missed out on the playoffs once since its inception in 2014. That one season was in 2019 when LSU went on the historic title run.
Alabama has an important matchup this week against those Tigers. The contest will take place in primetime at night in Baton Rouge, which will not make for an easy environment for the Crimson Tide. However, it is a must-win game if the team wants to fight for a playoff spot.
Why, you might ask? Well, in order to prove to the College Football Playoff committee that Alabama deserves a spot in the top four, the Crimson Tide will likely have to win the conference championship. In order to even compete in the conference title game, Alabama will have to defeat the remaining SEC teams on its schedule: LSU, Ole Miss, and Auburn.
Top-ranked Tennessee and No. 3 Georgia will face off in Athens, Georgia this week in what some analysts believe could be a preview of the national title game or a College Football Playoff semifinal at the very least.
The winner of Vols vs. Dawgs will more than likely represent the SEC East in the conference championship.
Surely, most Alabama fans would prefer an outcome where both teams lose. However, that can’t be the case. So which one should the Crimson Tide faithful root for?
The answer is clear: Tennessee.
Having the opportunity to play the Volunteers in the SEC championship is the best possible scenario for Alabama.
Assuming Tennessee wins out, it’s unlikely the College Football Playoff committee drops the Volunteers from the No. 1 spot. If Alabama can beat the top-ranked team in a neutral environment for the SEC title, the committee would be faced with a dilemma: Can you leave out an Alabama team that avenged its sole regular season loss to win the conference?
Alabama needs to force the committee to answer that question, and the only way to do it is to take on Tennessee in Atlanta.
So while it may not be ideal, Crimson Tide fans, Tennessee needs to win this one. If you don’t want to root for Tennessee to win, then just think about it as rooting for Georgia to lose.
[mm-video type=video id=01gfryjanzw75451km3d playlist_id=01eqbz6mkdd99nyvkm player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gfryjanzw75451km3d/01gfryjanzw75451km3d-3e430ab583ecf5cb4529c3055785acea.jpg]
[listicle id=58725]
[listicle id=58745]
[listicle id=58717]
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow AJ Spurr on Twitter @SpurrFM.
Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today!