Alabama Football: Records of top teams against ranked opponents

Recently we compared Alabama Football, National Championship success to every other college football program. Suggesting only counting ‘awarded’ (AP and Coaches Polls) and ‘won’ (BCS and CFBP) Championships, showed the dominance of the Alabama Crimson Tide.

This post looks at just six teams. The six chosen are those having, in recent years, the highest profiles as top teams in college football. Those teams are the Alabama Crimson Tide, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Georgia and Notre Dame. Many Alabama Football fans scoff at the Fighting Irish being a top team, No doubt, they often fail to match lofty rankings. But Notre Dame has been ranked high enough to make two of the last three College Football Playoffs.

For fun, a ‘not-top’, seventh team was added. Alabama football fans will love the breakdown on the seventh team.

To compare the top six teams, win-loss records against ranked teams were tracked, going back six seasons to 2015. The always invaluable source sportsreference.com was used to tabulate the data. The ranking of opponents when games were played was used, rather than the end-of-season ranking of those opponents.

Winning Percentages Against Ranked Teams 2015-2020

1. Alabama Football – 85.4 percent from a 35-6 record
2. Ohio State Buckeyes – 83.3 percent from a 25-5 record
3. Clemson Tigers – 82.1 percent from a 23-5 record
4. Oklahoma Sooners – 76.7 percent from a 23-7 record
5. Georgia Bulldogs – 56.7 percent from a 17-13 record
6. Notre Dame Fighting Irish – 50 percent from a 13-13 record

Not all schedules are comparably challenging. Alabama Football fans often hear the claim the Crimson Tide “ain’t played nobody.”

Toughest Schedules Against Ranked Teams

Using the six-season data as described above, an overall, average ranking for an opponent was calculated.

1. Clemson Tigers – Average Ranked Opponent was ranked No. 8, (8.4 to be exact)
2. Alabama Crimson Tide – Average Ranked Opponent was ranked No. 9, (9.2)
3. Ohio State Buckeyes – Average Ranked Opponent was ranked No. 10, (9.7)
4. Georgia Bulldogs – Average Ranked Opponent was ranked No. 10, (10.1)
5. Oklahoma Sooners – Average Ranked Opponent was ranked No. 11, (11.1)
6. Notre Dame Fighting Irish – Average Ranked Opponent was ranked No. 13

Alabama Football: Observations from the comparison

In the six seasons tracked, the other five teams played from a low of 26 games against ranked teams, (Notre Dame) to a high of 30 games (Ohio State, Oklahoma and Georgia); Clemson played 28. The total of Crimson Tide ranked games was considerably higher; at 41.

With a smaller sample of games among the other five teams, CFB Playoff appearances made their opponent averages higher. Had just the regular season been calculated, the strength of the Alabama Football schedule and game performance would have been even more evident.

And lastly, about the seventh team – the Auburn Tigers. The Tigers’ record against ranked teams was 12-21; a winning percentage of 36.4 percent. Congratulations to Auburn for the noteworthy performance.

The legend of Gus ‘Offensive Guru’ Malzahn lives on in central Florida. Many Alabama Football fans were sad about Gus’ Auburn exit but glad to see UCF make such an ‘outstanding’ hire.