Since Nick Saban arrived at Alabama, beating the Crimson Tide has been a requirement for an SEC team to play for a national championship. Alabama enters Saturday’s SEC Championship Game as an underdog, a rarity under Saban. Alabama has faced future national title-winning teams from Auburn, Clemson, Florida, LSU and Ohio State during Saban’s tenure. Greg McElroy said Saturday’s SEC Championship Game might be Alabama’s toughest challenge of the Saban era.

McElroy and another former Alabama QB John Parker Wilson, who now does color analysis for Alabama football, discussed whether or not is this the best team the Tide has ever faced on his show “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning” via Tidesports.com.

“It’s obviously a rare, rare, rare, rare occurrence, so I think it’s reasonable to ask the question if this might be the toughest hill to climb of the Nick Saban era,” McElroy said. “I just don’t know how you feel about that.”

Wilson agreed with McElroy that this may be Saban’s toughest challenge as a coach. McElroy even said this Georgia team may be better than the Florida team’s back in the early 2000s.

“I do think this is the toughest challenge of the Saban era,” he said. “This is the best team that Saban’s faced. I honestly believe that. Now I know the Florida teams back in 2008 and ’09 were excellent. But I honestly believe this is the best team that Saban’s seen. We’ll see whether or not it comes to fruition.”

Alabama and Georgia will kick off in the SEC Championship Game Saturday at 4 p.m. ET on CBS.