Alabama is, finally, a legit national title contender again

In the first two years of the 12-team College Football Playoff, Alabama was the perfect illustration of a new kind of “contender.” The expanded format created a liminal space at the back end of the bracket, like the “bubble teams” in March Madness. The 2024 Crimson Tide were the first team out of the field, and if they’d made it, a team that had just lost by 21 to a bad Oklahoma team was not going far. The 2025 Tide were the second-to-last team in. Their inclusion was both undeserved (as they’d lost the SEC Championship by 21 points) and had two other losses and pointless (because they didn’t look like a team that could win anything, while an excluded Notre Dame might have). Two seasons without Nick Saban, two Alabama teams that only remained nationally relevant because the 12-team format created a debate.