Alabama Football: Crimson Tide will not be undefeated in ’21 season

After a perfect 13-0 season in 2020, Alabama Football will not go undefeated again in 2021. How do we know this? All that is required is to review Alabama Crimson Tide history. Going back to the start in 1892, the Crimson Tide has been undefeated and untied only 11 times. One of those seasons is irrelevant. The undefeated 1897 team only played one game. That victory was 6-0 over the Tuscaloosa Athletic Club.

The other undefeated and untied seasons were 1925 (10-0-0), 1930 (10-0-0), 1934 (10-0-0), 1945 (10-0-0), 1961 (11-0), 1966 (11-0), 1979 (12-0), 1992 (13-0-0), 2009 (14-0). Never has the Alabama Crimson Tide followed an undefeated and untied season with another one.

Based on the history, 10 undefeated and untied seasons out of 125 seasons of Crimson Tide football (not counting the 1897 season) is a success rate of just eight percent. Many programs would love to have replicated such success. Alabama football fans expect more – much more.

In the Nick Saban Alabama Football era, the undefeated success rate is much higher at 14.3 percent. Fourteen seasons give small data points, but if the Saban pattern holds, the Alabama Crimson Tide should be undefeated again before Saban’s contract runs out at the end of the 2026 season. For the record, Nick Saban coaching Alabama Football beyond the 2026 season would not shock us and many Crimson Tide fans.

Under Superman Nick Saban Alabama Football beats odds

This review should not suggest Bama Hammer has a negative view of future results under Nick Saban. Far from it. Nick Saban is Superman. The 2021 Alabama Crimson Tide could become the first Alabama Football team to register a back-to-back undefeated season. If it happens, much of the college football world will lose its collective mind. No doubt it would trigger a quicker expansion of the College Football Playoff field.

For those Tide fans who want to worry about what team could beat the Crimson Tide in 2021 – check out John Buhler’s piece predicting who could take down the Tide.

Going back to the history of the Crimson Tide and comparing it to other SEC West teams is fun. In the 125 seasons discussed above, the Alabama Crimson Tide has lost five games in a season only seven times. Among three SEC West foes, LSU has the best performance this century. The Bengal Tigers lost five games in 2020, but have done so only three other times. It is not coincidental that Nick Saban built a top program for LSU.

In the same 21 season interval, Texas A&M has lost five games in a season six times. Additionally, the Aggies, have lost six games, five times; seven games once and eight games twice in a season. That is 14 of 21 seasons with five or more losses for the Aggies.

Auburn has lost five games in a season eight times in the 21 seasons. The Tigers have also lost six games once; seven games once and nine games once. For the Aubies, that is 11 of 21 season with the Tigers losing five or more games.

Note: Most of the data in this post comes from our go-to site for college football records, sports-reference.com.

We are not offering an ESPN-FPI algorithm. What we offer are historical facts. And the facts are neither LSU, Auburn or Texas A&M come close to having a program to match Alabama Football.