Alabama Football: Week eight key games for Crimson Tide fans
By Ronald Evans
Week eight of CFB brings some significant SEC contests and big national games with Playoff implications important to Alabama football fans.
We Alabama football fans need to pay close attention to the rest of CFB. The paths to the SEC Championship game and to the CFB Playoff become more clear each week.
Alabama football could slam-dunk its way to the final four by going undefeated through the SEC Championship game. Only once in Nick Saban’s head coaching career has his team been undefeated, the 2009 Alabama football National Champions. If ever there is a year when a one-loss Crimson Tide team will not be chosen for the final four, 2018 might be that year.
If Notre Dame goes undefeated, the Irish, deserving or not will take one of the four spots. In that scenario, two Power Five conferences would fail to get teams in the Playoff. While the SEC has more top teams than the other Power Five conferences, this does not look like a two-team SEC CFB Playoff year.
No one knows what will transpire with the current five undefeated teams over the next six weeks. We do not at least one of the five will drop from the unbeaten list this week as Clemson takes on North Carolina State. After that game, the potential CFB Playoff field will have at least 11 one-loss team possibilities.
Alabama football fans are highly interested in that national group of about 15 teams. One of them will represent the SEC East in the SEC Championship game. All of them are, as of this week, potential opponents for the Alabama football in the Playoff.
So Bama Hammer is here to help follow the action. In the following pages, our writing staff previews games from week eight. The key games include important games in the SEC and other national contests.