Yes, Alabama still has business to address this weekend in its heated Iron Bowl matchup at Auburn. In theory, the Tigers could ruin the Tide’s Playoff hopes — despite being a 2-touchdown underdog coming off a horrific home loss to New Mexico State.

Keeping the Tide focused on the task at hand is Nick Saban’s problem this week.

But for many, much to Saban’s chagrin, the focus already is on the looming SEC Championship Game showdown against Georgia.

The last time Alabama played Georgia, confetti rained down from the rafters, and it wasn’t meant for the Crimson Tide.

It was nearly 2 years ago now, at the conclusion of the national championship game for the 2021 season, and the confetti was in celebration of the newly minted champions from Athens.

The setting was Indianapolis and the meaning of it all was that Bama had failed to repeat as national champs, that Georgia had captured its 1st national crown since 1980, and that, just maybe, we were seeing the start of a changing of the guard in college football.

What’s happened since that night has only reinforced that feeling. Kirby Smart led the Bulldogs back to the mountaintop in 2022, accomplishing the rare championship repeat while the Crimson Tide didn’t make it back to the Playoff or even to Atlanta, for that matter.

All of it added up to a narrative that Georgia was the “New Alabama” and that Alabama was, well, finally nearing the end of its dynasty.

And nothing Georgia has done this fall has done anything to stop that dynastic comparison with Alabama. Because the Bulldogs haven’t stopped winning. Last Saturday afternoon, they blasted a ranked Tennessee team in Knoxville. Fittingly, their 28-point victory extended the Dawgs’ overall winning streak to 28, which also fittingly tied — who else? — Alabama for the longest win streak in SEC history.

On Sunday, Georgia was the No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll for the 23rd consecutive week, the 2nd-best streak in the poll’s history. The Bulldogs will almost assuredly break Bama’s SEC winning streak record this Saturday night by beating Georgia Tech, although it is a rivalry game on the road, eerily similar to the Crimson Tide’s road date with Auburn earlier in the day.

But assuming the Tide and Dawgs disperse with their bitter in-state adversaries on Thanksgiving weekend, 8th-ranked Alabama will have won 10 in a row since that Week 2 Texas disaster was supposed to signal the beginning of the end, and Saban’s revitalized team will have a chance to be the team that halts this seemingly never-ending Georgia winning streak.

This time, the setting will be Atlanta, the stakes will be an SEC championship, and it will feel all too familiar for both programs. Because although it might feel like forever ago, it will only have been exactly 2 years since Alabama took down Georgia, 41-24, to seal yet another conference crown. At that moment, the Tide seemed on their way to another national title and the Bulldogs seemed headed for yet another tortured near-miss.

And then a funny thing happened. Georgia hasn’t lost a game since. Two national titles and 1 SEC crown later, the Bulldogs will invade Atlanta once again to face an Alabama team that’s got its swagger back led by a defense that hasn’t given an inch since being shredded by the Longhorns in early September.

The always-grueling SEC gauntlet awaited the Tide after that stinging loss. An ultra-passionate fan base was devastated, and a college football world full of Bama haters was delirious. It was all so surreal. The Crimson Tide had no quarterback and just maybe that much-heralded defense was lost without Will Anderson Jr. and the other talented departures.

And then another funny thing happened. Alabama hasn’t lost a game since. Jalen Milroe surged into a dark-horse Heisman Trophy candidate. The running game hit its stride. And the defense found itself, showing up weekly with a vengeance to help the Tide tear through the SEC without a loss and book a trip to Atlanta after a 1-year absence.

This defense that has become ferocious again, like the stellar units that backboned Saban’s first few national championships in T-Town. The defense that since the loss to Texas has allowed the following point totals in the next 9 games: 3, 10, 17, 20, 21, 20, 28, 21, 10. That’s a large, impressive sample size of consistency, and by the way the 1 time the Tide allowed more than 21 points during this run, in the 42-28 victory over LSU earlier this month, they only surrendered 7 points in the 2nd half and 0 in the 4th quarter during winning time against Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers and the high-octane Tigers.

Kevin Steele’s unit seemed to take it personally after allowing the Horns to roll up 454 yards, including 349 through the air. Everyone with a microphone or a social media account told the Tide it was all coming to an end, but the defense didn’t listen. It just kept playing and thriving, whether it’s been veteran stars like Dallas Turner and Kool-Aid McKinstry, a budding star like Jihaad Campbell or a freshman phenom like Caleb Downs.

It’s been a little bit of everything and everyone for Steele’s defense, which kept the Crimson Tide afloat early in the season during the long-forgotten quarterback carousel. Then once Milroe settled in, so did the defense during the meat of the SEC grind.

The Iron Bowl will always mean everything, and Auburn is 6-5. But the Tigers just lost at home, by 3 touchdowns, to New Mexico State, and they only scored 10 points while doing it. Right now, Payton Thorne isn’t scaring anybody, and he’s definitely not scaring this rollicking Alabama defense.

But what about the week after?

What about the showdown that not many outside Tuscaloosa thought Alabama would get to back in September?

What about Georgia? The Dawgs’ offense has found itself too after some early-season growing pains as it transitioned from Stetson Bennett to Carson Beck.

The Dawgs haven’t been held under 30 points since the 27-20 escape at Auburn on Sept. 30, and the Beck-led offense has looked pretty scary over the past 6 games. The Bulldogs put up 51 points against Kentucky and 43 on Florida, and then the past 3 weeks during a gauntlet against 3 ranked teams, Georgia scored 30 points against Missouri, a whopping 52 on Ole Miss and 38 last Saturday in that impressive road win at Neyland Stadium.

Bama’s defense has been tested plenty in 2023, but it hasn’t seen this Georgia yet.

This Georgia is a dynasty in the making, a program that’s now just a few precious victories from winning 3 national titles in a row.

Beck hasn’t won one yet, of course, but this is his first run at one. He’s gotten his feet under him quite well, thank you, completing 73% of his passes for 3,320 yards. His 21 touchdown passes don’t blow you away, but he isn’t throwing the ball to the other team either, with just 5 interceptions in 11 games. The question marks were rampant with Beck coming into this season, considering what Bennett had accomplished the previous 2 seasons.

But he’s answered them emphatically so far and so has the new again OC, Mike Bobo, for that matter, in his 2nd stint in Athens. Last week, Bobo was nominated for the Frank Broyles Award, given to the nation’s top assistant coach, which would’ve seemed crazy back in September, when the Dawgs were scuffling. He’s been getting apologies on social media from a suddenly spoiled fan base that’s becoming more and more like … Alabama’s.

Bobo has his all-everything tight end back in Brock Bowers, who returned much quicker than anticipated from ankle surgery.

He has his 1-2 backfield punch of Daijun Edwards and Kendall Milton ready for the stretch run, and he has right tackle Amarius Mims back on that already sturdy offensive line after Mims missed 6 games.

All is not rosy between the hedges though as star wideout Ladd McConkey missed the Tennessee game after injuring his ankle the week before against Ole Miss. He tried to play against the Vols after not practicing all week but couldn’t go, so that is certainly something to watch as the Dawgs approach the Georgia Tech game before SEC Championship Week beckons.

McConkey’s absence obviously isn’t ideal, though he very well could be sitting out now so he’s ready for Bama in a few weeks. And Bobo’s offense didn’t flinch without McConkey and RaRa Thomas (foot) in Knoxville, as Dillon Bell (5 catches, 90 yards, 1 touchdown) and Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint (7 catches, 91 yards, 2 TDs) stepped up and then some.

That’s what big-time depth looks like.

That’s what football factories produce.

And that’s how dynasties like the one Smart is on the verge of building in Athens form.

In 11 days, the dynasty that’s strangled the sport for the past 15 years will attempt to slow down the Dawgs, with a College Football Playoff spot at stake.

Bama remembers that awful confetti, and it will try to make Georgia remember how it feels to lose a football game.