The college football season is getting ready to start, and fans everywhere are already buzzing with excitement. Of course, there are already predictions and favorites for the playoffs. This year is going to be interesting as always. This is especially true for the Alabama Crimson Tide, missing Nick Saban as their head coach for the first time in 17 seasons. Here’s a quick overview of the season, predictions for playoffs, and a look into Alabama without Nick Saban.
First Week Of the Season
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The season started Saturday, Aug. 24 with seven games across the league. The first game of the day was the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland. This game was played between Georgia Tech vs. No. 10 Florida State. The Aer Lingus College Football Classic is an annual event that brings American college football to Ireland. This is done to promote Ireland as a travel destination as it tends to attract Americans of Irish descent back to Ireland. The teams that are chosen to play often have Catholic or Irish backgrounds. The rest of the games that were played that day were between the McNeese State Cowboys vs. the Tarleton State Texans, the Montana State Bobcats vs. the New Mexico Lobos, and the North Alabama Lions vs. the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks.
Up next was the MEAC/SWAC Challenge between the Norfolk State Spartans and the Florida A&M Rattlers. The MEAC/SWAC Challenge is an annual game between historically black college teams and it highlights a team from each of the two NCAA Division I conferences composed entirely of HBCUs: the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The day ended with the SMU Mustangs vs. the Nevada Wolfpack and the Delaware State Hornets vs. the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors.
A Look Into the New Alabama Football
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The Crimson Tide is entering a new era after Nick Saban’s retirement, and it is raising questions about the future of the team and its success. Even though many have doubts, Tyler Booker, a junior offensive lineman, insists the Saban standard of excellence remains intact. Kalen DeBoer, the new head coach, is facing a huge challenge of continuing Alabama’s great legacy but still stepping out of Saban’s shadow. The team, led by key players like quarterback Jalen Milroe and linebacker Deontae Lawson, is determined to prove they can maintain the high expectations.
For the first time in over a decade, Alabama wasn’t the preseason favorite to win the SEC and its No. 5 preseason is its lowest since 2009. However, DeBoer’s leadership has so far kept the team focused, has retained most of the roster, and has secured the No. 2 recruiting class. The previous season, DeBoer was with the University of Washington and they made it all the way to the championship. The program’s success will depend on Milroe’s development and how well he can adapt to how DeBoer runs his system. There are concerns about the defense and depth, but between the coaching staff and Alabama’s talent, they are still strong contenders for being in the playoffs.
ESPN Playoff Predictions
Like every year, ESPN has released their predictions for the postseason. After Florida State’s unexpected 24-21 loss to the unranked Georgia Tech in their season opener, Mike Norvell emphasized that the Seminoles "can't let this one game define what the outcome of our season will be." Even with this setback, FSU still has a chance at the playoffs by winning the ACC or securing one of the seven at-large bids that are available in the new 12-team format.
Even though they can still come back from this, the early loss has already impacted postseason predictions and even got them left out of some projections.
Per the Allstate Playoff Predictor, FSU’s chances of making the playoffs dropped from 36 percent to 13 percent after the loss. With the new format, it is more possible for more teams to contend for playoff spots which led to varied predictions between analysts. Despite Alabama's changes and FSU's early setback, the 12-team format keeps the door open for more possibilities for them to keep their spots as well.
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Georgia and Ohio State are the consistently favored teams by the analysts while Alabama, Oregon, and Texas are also mentioned quite a bit. Most experts are projecting Georgia and Ohio State as finalists and have Georgia winning it all; some are predicting Ohio State or even Oregon to win it all. As always, the journey to the College Football Championship is unpredictable, which promises an exciting journey for fans.
Edited by Taylor N. Hall
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