15. Are there really 15 college football teams better than the Alabama Crimson Tide? 10, sure. Five, most definitely. But 15? When did we lose our minds and start taking crazy pills again? Make it make sense! Alabama was a playoff team a year ago, winning a first-round game on the road nonetheless. Kalen DeBoer is far from a perfect head coach, but he is leading a top-12 team, and not a top-16 one.
With news of Brendan Sorsby leaving college football behind in lieu of the NFL Supplemental Draft, ESPN's Mark Schlabach updated his top 25 rankings. Teams like Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and LSU went up, while Texas Tech slid back a bit. You know who did not move up one single spot? Alabama... The Crimson Tide has been so underrated throughout the process; it is insane. It is time to change that.
So, what we are going to do today is look at five teams that are ranked ahead of Alabama that honestly have no business being above them. No, you are not going to see Alabama surge past teams like Georgia, Indiana, Ohio State, or Oregon at the top of the sport. But in that next wave of teams, Alabama is a more dangerous threat to make some noise in the postseason than expected.
Let's start with a program that has major uncertainty surrounding its recently promoted head coach.
5. No. 8 Ole Miss Rebels
Ole Miss at No. 8 is laughably bad. The Rebels may be coming off their best season in 65 years or so, but they will be tasked to climb the mountain again without Lane Kiffin around. He bailed on them when they needed him the most. While promoting defensive coordinator Pete Golding from within seems logical, he is still green to being a head coach. He did have an amazing run in the postseason.
The reason why Ole Miss is not higher on this list is even though they are grossly overrated at No. 8, the Rebels will still likely be playoff-viable. As is the case with Alabama, they will be competing for the same three or four at-large seeds to round out the field. In short, Ole Miss did more under trying circumstances a year ago than Alabama. That should matter. Ole Miss is a good, but not great, team.
Ole Miss could conceivably be ranked ahead of Alabama, but there are others far more egregious.
4. No. 13 Oklahoma Sooners
As is the case with Ole Miss, Oklahoma was a playoff team out of the SEC a year ago. While OU did earn its spot in the playoff field last season, it was Alabama who ended the Sooners' campaign in Norman. Oklahoma may have gotten the best of Alabama during the regular season, but not when it mattered most. Brent Venables is a savvy defensive mind, but his team's offense is not up to snuff.
When push comes to shove, Alabama should get past Oklahoma more times than not because of the extra gear its offense can get to. Ultimately, Kalen DeBoer can draw up offensive plays to win games. Venables has to rely on 30-something Ben Arbuckle to find the right concept to put loose-cannon quarterback John Mateer into an advantageous position to succeed. Alabama is a bit more steady.
If only one of these SEC teams end up making the College Football Playoff, roll with the Crimson Tide.
3. No. 10 LSU Tigers
Lane Kiffin may be in charge in Baton Rouge, but Brian Kelly left him such a mess to clean up. LSU may have hit the transfer portal hard, but let's not overlook this one glaring fact about the program. Outside of having the greatest college football team to grace God's green earth in 2019, LSU has never made the playoffs in any other season. LSU is 1-for-12 in that department. That is not great.
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Once again, people are falling for the trap that is Kiffin taking over at a new position. He has won everywhere he has been before, but his tremendous coaching job at Ole Miss was not an overnight fix. LSU may be a playoff team this season, but the Bayou Bengals are not going to set the SEC on fire. Their roster needs a massive overhaul defensively. Defense is what wins championships in the SEC.
LSU has not made the playoffs since COVID, but some people keep getting sucked up into the hype.
2. No. 14 Michigan Wolverines
Michigan may only be ranked two spots ahead of Alabama, but that does not seem right at all. Kyle Whittingham may be an excellent head coach, but he enters Ann Arbor after another embarrassing scandal for the Wolverines. Sherrone Moore dropped the baton from Jim Harbaugh after only two years. Michigan has the talent to be a playoff-caliber team, but it faces a joyless slog of a schedule.
The Wolverines not only draw Indiana, Oregon, and Ohio State in-conference, but they must host Oklahoma in the second leg of a home-and-home with the Sooners. Whoever wins that game will surely remain playoff-viable, while the loser could quickly fall out of the top 25 entirely. One of them could be good to great, but not both. Michigan having a new head coach makes this a tougher sell.
If Michigan is to a be a playoff team out of the Big Ten, the Wolverines will be the fourth out of four.
1. No. 15 Penn State Nittany Lions
What are we doing here? The idea of James Franklin has gotten so many people into trouble over the years. Infamous for going 10-2 every season, The Driver could not keep the Penn State Nittany Lions on the road. After a 0-3 start to Big Ten play, he was let go less than a year after finally making the playoffs. Replacing him is former Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell, who has to prove his worth.
Campbell was a tremendous head coach for the Cyclones, but not all jobs are created equally. What he did in Ames was commendable. How sure are we that it will work in State College? Ask yourself this. Will a bunch of former Iowa State transfers be the reason Penn State makes it back to the playoffs? They could, but we should trust Alabama to make it back far more than this new-look team.
At best, Penn State is arguably the fifth best team in its own conference, including behind Michigan.
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