Alabama Football: Reasons for Tide fans to root for the Dawgs or not

Many Alabama football fans will root against the Georgia Bulldogs in 2019. What’s best for the Tide? For the Dawgs to lose or make the SEC Championship undefeated?

Some Alabama football fans will have no interest in this discussion. The reason being believing the Alabama Crimson Tide should focus on itself and have no concern over what other teams do or don’t do. Nick Saban believes the Alabama football team should always follow that premise.

As fans, we are not held to such strict discipline. We follow all the potential CFB Playoff teams with great interest. Many of us look forward to any games the Auburn Tigers or Tennessee Vols may lose. Losses by the Bengal Tigers are also commonly relished.

Since Kirby Smart has been at Georgia, the Bulldogs have become a more bitter rival. And there is a generational divide of fans who root for Notre Dame or Clemson to lose every game.

Concocting bad juju against a rival is the choice of individual fans. There is no right or wrong list of teams. Considering what is best for the Alabama Crimson Tide (the team) is another matter entirely.

Recently, college football analyst and predictor of outcomes, Phil Steele was on WNSP 105.5FM introducing the release of his annual magazine. He predicted Alabama football, along with Clemson, Michigan and Georgia will make the College Football Playoff.

Is it possible the best scenario for the Crimson Tide is a matchup in the SEC Championship game against an undefeated Georgia? Assuming the Tide also goes into the game undefeated, some college football experts believe only a lopsided loss would keep either team out of the CFB Playoff.

This same direction of thought presumes losing to a one-loss Georgia team might not guarantee the Crimson Tide its annual inclusion in the final four. Many other factors would come into play involving teams from the other Power Five conferences. But there is strong national discontent when two SEC schools bump a pair of Power Five Champions out of the Playoff. So much so, it may never happen again.

In past season’s the Crimson Tide’s body of work could be counted on to make a difference. There is no question the SEC is the toughest conference in college football. Still, Auburn could slide this year. Texas A&M and Mississippi State may not be highly ranked teams. Beating Duke will not mean much. Knocking off LSU for a ninth straight game may not wow the committee.

Every Alabama football fan will make their own choice. Georgia has a strong chance to be 12-0 heading to Atlanta. It might be in the Crimson Tide’s best interest for the Bulldogs to have enough vulnerabilities to lose a game before then. Or that might not be what is best for the Tide’s national title chances. We don’t know.

Down here, tucked away at the bottom of a post, we will divulge a preference. At the very minimum, we will be rooting for Vandy, South Carolina, Kentucky, Florida, Missouri and Texas A&M against ‘you-know-who.’ Throw in Georgia Tech in case you don’t know who ‘you-know-who’ is.