The opponents on Alabama’s 2025 football schedule did not change on Monday afternoon, but some of them did get little numbers next to their names, and that’s a big deal. The teams are no different, but a look at the Crimson Tide’s schedule after the release of the preseason AP Poll on Monday reveals just how difficult Kalen DeBoer’s path back to the College Football Playoff will be.
Coming in at No. 7, Alabama received its lowest preseason AP Poll ranking since 2008. Still, only one team on its schedule is ranked higher than the Tide, and it’s a familiar foe. Let’s take a look around the SEC on AP Poll release day and through Alabama’s schedule to see where the Tide’s opponents landed.
No. 5 Georgia presents a tough test in Week 5
No surprise, the Georgia Bulldogs are the highest-ranked team on Alabama’s schedule and the second-highest ranked team in the SEC behind No. 1 Texas. Alabama opens its SEC slate against the Bulldogs in Athens on September 27.
Last season, Georgia, then No. 2, came to Bryant-Denny Stadium for the Tide’s first SEC contest in Week 5. The fourth-ranked Tide escaped with a 41-34 shootout victory and climbed to No. 1 in the country, where they would stay for just one week before losing to Vanderbilt on the road in Week 6.
A brutal four-week stretch begins on the Third Saturday in October
Alabama can make the 12-team College Football Playoff with a loss to Georgia on its resume, but the Tide’s Week 8-12 gauntlet could threaten to keep DeBoer out of the CFP for the second-straight season and send him straight to the hot seat.
Along with being its highest-ranked opponent, Georgia is Alabama’s only preseason top 25 opponent until the Third Saturday in October, when the No. 24 Tennessee Volunteers come to town. Now, there’s no guarantee that Tennessee, which lost former five-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava in the spring Transfer Portal, will still be ranked by the time that rivalry game comes around, but that matchup kicks off a brutally difficult four-game stretch.
After Tennessee, Alabama travels to Columbia, South Carolina, to play the No. 13 South Carolina Gamecocks and preseason Heisman Trophy candidate LaNorris Sellers. Then, the Tiede get a much-needed bye week before back-to-back home games against LSU, which is preseason No. 9, and No. 18 Oklahoma, which knocked DeBoer’s team out of the CFP picture last November.
SEC dominates preseason AP Top 25
Kalen DeBoer’s first goal every season is to win the SEC. If he does that, the rest will almost always take care of itself. The Tide will be in prime position in the CFP, likely earning a first-round bye as a top-four seed. However, winning the SEC, though Nick Saban did it nine times, isn’t easy. After the SEC expanded to include Texas and Oklahoma, it got even tougher.
Including the Longhorns and the Sooners, 10 SEC teams were featured in the preseason AP Top 25, the most of any conference. The Big Ten managed just six.
- No. 1 Texas
- No. 5 Georgia
- No. 8 Alabama
- No. 9 LSU
- No. 13 South Carolina
- No. 15 Florida
- No. 18 Oklahoma
- No. 19 Texas A&M
- No. 21 Ole Miss
- No. 24 Tennessee
The Tide are lucky to only play five opponents ranked in the preseason Top 25. With non-conference contests against Miami and Michigan, respectively, Florida and Oklahoma both play seven teams ranked in the preseason AP Poll, and on top of its SEC slate, Texas opens the year at No. 3 Ohio State in Week 1.