Alabama fooball will face one of the most challenging schedules in the country in 2025, featuring 10 contests against power-five opponents. The Tide will play the customary eight-game SEC schedule, and will face Florida State and Wisconsin in non-conference play.
We will find out a lot about the quality of this Crimson Tide team by the end of September, though more of a gauntlet awaits in October and November with plenty of opportunities to be tripped up.
On Wednesday, ESPN released its list of "swing" games for each of its projected Top 25 teams. These are games that could swing a team's season one way or another. A win could propel a team foward toward a successful season, while a loss could be damaging and send them spiraling.
ESPN believes Alabama's will happen in September. The Crimson Tide's trip to Athens on September 27th to face Georgia is circled by ESPN as a key early game for Alabama to determine if Kalen DeBoer's team is a legitimate contender or not.
Of course, a road loss to what will likely be a Top 5 Georgia team will not be disqualifying, but according to ESPN a win over the Bulldogs would provide Alabama with a "mulligan or two" the rest of the season. Let's hope the Alabama coaches and players don't view it that way.
Alabama can't afford to relax even if they beat Georgia
A win over Georgia in September would be nice. The meltdown from the Bulldogs faithful would be epic, and seeing Kirby Smart drop to 1-7 against the Crimson Tide - and 0-2 against DeBoer - would be enough to warm the coldest of hearts.
But if Alabama believes it has a "mulligan or two" after a win in Athens like ESPN would lead them to believe, they're setting themselves up for another disappointing October/November.
Alabama took the win over Georgia last season as a relief, and a sign they were still Alabama. They had proven to the country that they could go toe-to-toe, and beat, the best of the best even without Saban. They promptly turned around the next week and lost to Vanderbilt for the first time in 40 years.
You would like to believe that this team has the maturity to not let something like that happen again.
Even if Alabama fall in Athens, so long as they won the rest of their games in September, they would enter the October stretch in a good spot. Losing a road game to Georgia will not hurt Alabama's CFP resume, though a win would certainly travel with them the rest of the season. The Bulldogs have won 31 consecutive games at Sanford Stadium; it's a tough place to win.
That streak is likely to be at 33 games when Alabama travels between the hedges. The winner will get a big leg up in the playoff and SEC races, but the loser will still be a factor as the season progresses.