Alabama football fans are excited about Josh Pate's post-spring ranking of the Alabama Crimson Tide as the nation's No. 4 team. The excitement was also boosted by Pate ranking the Georgia Bulldogs at No. 11, and the SEC's sixth-highest ranked team. The other four SEC teams are Texas (No. 2), LSU (No. 5), Florida (No. 9), and Oklahoma at No. 10. Three more SEC teams were ranked: Texas A&M (No. 14), Ole Miss (No. 16), and South Carolina at No. 18.
Don't bother paying attention to reactions from Georgia fans. They are frothing. Most interesting about Pate's ranking of the Alabama Crimson Tide is how it compares with other recent post-spring SEC Power Rankings. 247Sports ranked Alabama No. 3; Athlon had Bama at No.4; USA Today and SI.com ranked Alabama Football No. 5. The sometimes unfriendly to the Crimson Tide site, Saturday Down South, ranked the Tide No. 6. With Pate ranking Alabama as the SEC's No. 2 team, the average of the six sites is Alabama Football ranked at No. 4.2 in the SEC. As always, championships will be the goals of the 2025 Alabama Crimson Tide, and the players will not be content with even Pate's confidence in the Crimson Tide.
Given that many Alabama fans consider a 4-loss, 2024 season as a near disaster, the early rankings indicate the potential of a significant turnaround in the 2025 season. At the least, a 4th-best SEC team should have a good chance to make the Playoff field.
Such confidence from outsiders is counter to the 'Alabama Collapse' themes that were so often used in the 2024 preseason. Instead of combating nay-sayers, the 2025 Crimson Tide can look to proving yea-sayers correct.
Alabama Football and SEC Football Program Rankings
Less noticed but perhaps more interesting is Josh Pate's latest annual ranking of the Top 10 SEC football programs. Based on his measurement of four-season achievements, Pate ranked the Crimson Tide as the SEC's current No. 3 football program. Pate has Georgia at No. 1 and the Texas Longhorns at No. 2. After Alabama at No. 3 are Tennessee (No. 4), LSU (No. 5), Ole Miss (No. 6), Texas A&M (No. 7), Missouri (No. 8), South Carolina (No. 9), and Florida No. 10. Kindly, to the six other football programs, Pate did not rank all 16 teams. Fans of the Oklahoma Sooners and the Auburn Tigers will not enjoy their teams in the group of six SEC also-rans.
There are many noteworthy comments included in Pate's video explanation. One of them is while highlighting LSU's Transfer Portal success, Pate said. " they may have bought themselves two more wins."