Alabama Football: Saban’s history as an underdog

Alabama football usually wins with the odds against them.

Georgia lost to Alabama football in the SEC Championship, and the Tide are the top-ranked team in the College Football Playoff. Still, the Bulldogs are favored to win the national championship. This is bad news for Kirby Smart and his team.

Alabama football‘s dynasty can be measured in a variety of ways. One way is by the fact that the Tide have been favorites in almost every game since Saban’s first title. Since the start of the 2008 season, Alabama has been favored in every game except for six. Since Saban’s first title with the Tide, Alabama has been favored in every game except for two.

Alabama was an underdog three times in 2008. They won the first two matchups against Clemson and Georgia before losing to Florida in the SEC Championship. They were underdogs against Florida again in the 2009 SEC Championship, but they beat the Gators in that matchup before winning the national championship.

Since then, the two times that Alabama was an underdog have both been against the Georgia Bulldogs. Alabama was favored in every game from 2010 to the 2015 matchup against the Georgia Bulldogs. In that game, Alabama dominated on the road. They went on to win the national championship that year.

Georgia was also favored in the SEC Championship this year, but Alabama dominated. Bryce Young won the Heisman Trophy. That means that in the past three seasons where Alabama was an underdog, they had a Heisman Trophy winner. In two of the last three, they won the title. They can make it three for three if they beat the Bulldogs on Monday.

Alabama beat Georgia in the SEC Championship, and they are looking to repeat at underdogs this Monday. They haven’t been underdogs twice in one year since 2008, but the Tide are underdogs twice in three games.

There is plenty of history supporting an Alabama win on Monday, but the Tide still must execute. We’ll see if history repeats itself.