The 2015 regular season looked eerily familiar to Alabama. Much like a year ago, the Crimson Tide rallied from an early loss to Ole Miss to come back and claim an SEC championship.

Now Alabama is hoping that’s where the similarity ends.

A year ago, the Crimson Tide were drummed out of the College Football Playoff in the semifinals, getting run over by Big Ten champion Ohio State, the eventual national champion. It wasn’t the ending they wanted, or had predicted.

Now they get another shot at the Big Ten, this time with Michigan State in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl on Dec. 31.  That’s where Alabama must change the course of history. Not only for the sake of its own program, but also for the SEC as a whole.

Make no mistake about it, Alabama is carrying the torch for the SEC. In a league where just one team survived with fewer than three losses, Alabama is unquestionably carrying the brand. A second consecutive semifinals loss would be devastating. After winning seven consecutive national titles from 2006 to 2012, a loss by Alabama this year would mean a three-year drought.

That’s far too long for what’s supposed to be the best conference in America.

They say everything moves in cycles. Perhaps that’s the impetus for the occasional reports of Alabama’s demise. A second straight loss in the semifinals might even lend some credence to them. Close but no cigar is not a philosophy that exists in Tuscaloosa, and it shouldn’t exist in the SEC either.

The Tide will enter the Cotton Bowl as solid favorites to take down a Michigan State team that was a botched punt away (Michigan) from watching the playoff at home. They are double-digit underdogs in some circles. But Alabama is a wacky fourth-and-25 backward toss-and-run (Arkansas vs. Ole Miss) away from possibly sitting right there next to them. That’s how fickle fate can be.

It isn’t good enough, not anymore, that Alabama simply makes the playoff. Not when they’ve experienced the sweet taste of 2009, 2011 and 2012 national championships. Not since Nick Saban began walking in the footsteps of Bear Bryant.

It just isn’t good enough any longer to play for the title. Winning it is the only thing that will bring solace to a program getting a second chance at being a dynasty. It’s the only thing that will bring the swag back to a conference that clings to the mountaintop by a fingernail.

Yes, the pressure is on Alabama to bring home the prize. The weight of the SEC is squarely on its shoulders and this veteran team –  the only one among the final four returning to the playoff – has to take advantage. They need to use that experience from a year ago to harness their emotions and to take advantage of the other three teams who are making the playoff for the first time.

It’s imperative that Alabama finishes the job this time, to stem the tide of another Big Ten team looking to lift the crown from the head of the SEC.

Alabama must not let that happen.

Alabama cannot let that happen.

It simply won’t do for the SEC’s last remaining power to go one-and-done a second consecutive time in the playoff.