Don’t plan your trip to Atlanta quite yet, Magnolia State.

After both teams suffered road losses, perception around college football is that both Alabama and Auburn have taken a step back in 2014.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

While analysts and pundits circle the Nov. 29 Egg Bowl between Ole Miss and Mississippi State as the game that will determine the SEC West, the West is far from decided.

It’s still a four team race. Both Alabama teams have remaining dates with the Mississippi schools on their schedules. Both Ole Miss and Mississippi State face two ranked teams apiece in the final six weeks of the season. Alabama has three Top 25 opponents left, while Auburn has four.

Both Alabama and Auburn suffered losses on the road in hellish environments to top three teams. Those are hardly season-killing losses.

Alabama had a 17-10 lead into the fourth quarter before surrendering two late touchdowns to Ole Miss. The Crimson Tide drove inside the red zone when the Rebels’ Senquez Golson picked off Blake Sims to seal the win.

Auburn let the game against Mississippi State slip away in the first three and a half minutes. The Tigers turned the ball over on each of their first two offensive plays and before anyone wearing orange and blue knew what hit them, Auburn was down 21-0. Though the game felt solidly in the grasp of the Bulldogs throughout, Auburn had its chances in the final three and a half quarters. Twice Auburn pulled to within eight, but could never fully recover.

In the political world of college football — dating back to the BCS era and even now with the College Football Playoff — we always debate how “good” one team’s wins or losses are when compared to another’s. Sure, the SEC West is 26-0 against non-SEC West opponents and, yes, only one of those wins is against a ranked team. But if any other Top 25 team had to play in that division week in and week out, no one would fare as well as the Tide and Tigers have.

The two teams have the best losses in the sport thus far. Georgia lost to an unranked South Carolina. Ohio State loss to an unranked Virginia Tech. Arizona State lost to an unranked UCLA.

Alabama and Auburn had to make the trip West across the state line into a state that, on two consecutive Saturdays, was at a fever pitch of expectation. No team would’ve ventured into the environments of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and Davis Wade Stadium and won.

Both teams stand at 5-1 and 2-1 in conference play, and both are still in the top 10. Alabama and Auburn’s paths to the SEC championship have roadblocks, but Atlanta is still in play.

If that’s regression, then fans in the state of Alabama should be grateful.