Nate Oats on Alabama basketball being ranked ahead of football: ‘We’re still 18 national championships behind’
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Nate Oats took the stage at SEC Media Days on Tuesday to discuss Alabama’s outlook in 2024-25.
Oats was asked about Alabama basketball being ranked higher than the football team at this point in their respective seasons. Alabama basketball is ranked No. 2 in the preseason AP Top 25 while the football team has slipped to No. 7 in the polls.
Oats answered the question humbly and pointed out that the Bama basketball program is still quite a bit behind where the football program is historically.
We’re just trying to get the basketball program up to a championship level,” Oats said. “There’s six programs at Alabama that have won National Championships. Basketball is not one of them. We’re trying to get it to that level. We feel like we’re at a level we can compete for one. It’s really hard to win one.
“We’re still 18 national championships behind football. There will be 12 teams going to the Playoffs and I’m assuming that coach DeBoer is gonna have his team in that 12. They looked pretty good when I was at that game against Georgia. I think you see how good they can be.”
Here’s video from part of Oats’ answer:
“Nate Oats on being ranked higher than the football team @abc3340
“You know we’re still 18 national championships behind football.” pic.twitter.com/cVcrlhmpns
— Chris McCulley (@ChrisMcCulleyTV) October 15, 2024
Alabama hoops is coming off of its first Final Four appearance since 2004 this past spring.
Kalen DeBoer and the Crimson Tide will try to improve their standing the polls with a win over Tennessee this weekend. Oats’ Alabama team will begin the 2024-25 campaign against Wake Forest in Birmingham on Oct. 18.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
