I’ll post something about the playoff selections again and then I’ll be done:

But SMU’s narrow losses proved they belonged, while Alabama’s big win over Georgia wasn’t enough to offset their previous setbacks. DeBoer and the Crimson Tide tearfully cried over the snub, the analyst summing up: “Alabama is right, but it’s not the point they made, so I won’t give them any credit for it.”

The chairman of the College Football Playoff further fueled the debate Warden Manuelwho spearheaded SMU’s resilience: “It was outstanding to have lost two games by a total of six points” He explained further The Rich Eisen Show. Alabama fans may point to the strength of their game plan, but the Mustangs’ ability to bring a playoff-bound Clemson team to the brink carried weight.

Let’s get this out of the way first:

Alabama may have had a bad year, but the ENTIRE national conversation is still about the flood. People just can’t help but get excited at every turn about Alabama missing the playoffs, just like it did in 2022 and 2019…you know, three times in 11 years.

The quotes I highlight here illustrate a major disconnect in the struggles in college football (and have been for decades). Which is better: bad wins and good losses or good wins and bad losses?

In this particular case, you have teams like Alabama and Ole Miss that have proven they can beat the best teams in the country, but could also lose to teams they shouldn’t. Meanwhile, teams like SMU and Indiana, and to a lesser extent South Carolina, Ohio State and Texas, have proven that they will win their games should win, but couldn’t close the deal with the good teams.

That’s an interesting question, and for decades college football has focused almost exclusively on losses rather than wins as the deciding factors in the postseason discussion – but that’s not necessarily the case in other sports, and as CFB gets into ever-larger playoffs advances, they could fail. There is a need to change the way losses are viewed.

For now, the existence of a nebulous “committee” means they can just decide whatever they want each year. But as they increasingly contradict previous years, the public will eventually tire of them.

And let’s face it: There’s hate in college football, and in all of sports there’s nothing that gets more attention than the chance of Alabama losing a game… Which can’t happen if they’re not playing. Nobody comes to cheer against Indiana.

The 7-5 Michigan Wolverines will face the 9-3 Alabama Crimson Tide in the ReliaQuest Bowl on New Year’s Eve in Tampa, Florida.

According to FanDuel Sportsbook, Michigan is currently a 12.5-point underdog against Alabama. This isn’t the worst news for Michigan, as they were 20.5 point underdogs against Ohio State and prevailed 13-10.

This is a rematch of the 2024 Rose Bowl, a 27-20 overtime win for the Wolverines that sent them to the National Championship. Coincidentally, Alabama’s new head coach, Kaleb DeBoer, was the head coach of Michigan’s National Championship opponent, Washington, and defeated the Huskies 34-13.

For what it’s worth, I’m actually pretty excited to get a matchup with Michigan. The two programs are very different from last year… But it’s cool for both Alabama and Kalen DeBoer to get revenge for last year’s playoff run.

Now let’s get to the squad discussions, the transfer portal continues:

I’ve been complaining for about three seasons that Nick Saban recruited too much defensive tackle depth despite moving to defenses that only used two DTs. Except for failing at top talent (seriously, 8/11 of the Tide’s top DL recruits from 2018 to 2022 were all busts, and Tim Smith underperformed despite being a starter) , the Tide also had too many scholarships awarded to the back end of the depth chart at that position.

A roster has (or at least had) a player limit of 85, which has resulted in Alabama being short on depth at OL and DB the last few seasons.

However, that quickly changed as DeBoer began to reshape the roster. Alabama now only has 8 true defensive tackles on next year’s roster, assuming Tim Keenan and Damon Payne return for the fifth time, which is a much more reasonable number than previous years:

2024 – 10

2023 – 14

2022 – 13

2021 – 14

Speaking of the portal, Alabama is also looking for one of the best players to enter the portal to date:

Alabama took an aggressive approach as the transfer portal opened on Monday. It will host one of the top receivers in the portal later this week. Former NC State star, Kevin ‘KC’ conceptionis scheduled to visit Alabama Thursday through Saturday.

There are several other schools affiliated with Concepcion including Auburn, Colorado, Kansas State, Penn State and Texas A&M. He spent two seasons with the Wolfpack before deciding to test the portal market.

The Charlotte native has a connection to Alabama Director of Recruiting Jatavis Sanders, who previously served as Director of Football Scouting at NC State before joining Coach Kalen DeBoers Employees in Alabama.

Alabama is also expected to host a defensive lineman later this week – find out more here!

The 6-foot, 170-pound receiver had an impressive freshman season with 71 receptions for 839 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also had 320 yards on the ground. He was named ACC Rookie of the Year and a Freshman All-American by On3 Sports. He was also named True Freshman National Offensive Player of the Year by On3.

Unless DeBoer expects Germie Bernard to go pro, I don’t think Alabama needs WRs. Bernard, Ryan Williams and Cole Adams are as great a trio as any in the country, and Jalen Hale and Emmanuel Henderson make up the rest of a great top-five rotation.

Still, you don’t say no to people like Concepcion.

There’s still a lot of portal shopping to do in Alabama. Considering the players I expect to turn pro, there is currently room for two Portal additions. Once you assume another 5 or so portal losses and maybe a surprising NFL guy. Then the Tide has plenty of room to add some differentiators and/or depth.

That’s all for today. Roll Tide!