The most powerful man in the country was already going to be there; the President will watch him coaching the Tide.

And then Wisconsin goes out and lays an egg bigger than any of the Badger teams he mentions. Go figure.

Umm...Alabama is also 1-0 in the SEC West, unless you're talking about only playing other SEC West teams.

The funny thing is, if they had acted like a sane group of people, they would have had the sympathy of the entire nation as the little guy who wasn't given a chance despite doing all it had to do. It would be "Rocky" except with a college football team instead of a boxer. Instead, because they have become so arrogant and annoying, even those with no love for the SEC hate them and wish they'd shut up and go away.

Then why do you take the time to read them? What else is there to write about at the moment in the realm of college football besides the latest underclassman to declare for the draft or the umpteenth post-mortem on the season? Frankly, I thought it was a good and interesting article that adds more to the conversation over how this was a hot mess of a decision on awarding the game to Santa Clara.

Have to wonder exactly who thought this was a good idea.

The Fiesta Bowl beat out either of the National Semifinal games for the most compelling? Was this poll taken in downtown Orlando?

What I find amazing is that Alabama is supposed to be the most hated team in college football, yet everyone can't wait to see a team they either really hate or don't think deserves getting into the playoffs destroyed by the Tide out of spite.

Gee, that's what, the 1,253rd time that's been said since 2008?

The record in question was beating your first 12 opponents by 20 or more points, which was accomplished when UA beat AU last week by 31. 31 < 20.

Excuses??? Um...did you bother checking out the logo next to my post?

And despite all of the history against Alabama, Alabama went out and made history.

Smart started hearing echoes from January and got desperate. He felt the momentum slipping away, he sensed the irony that Fate was about to play on him with Jalen this time replacing Tua, and he felt he had to do something to stop it. And in so doing, he actually caused the result he feared to happen. He's still learning, and Saban made some bone-headed calls, too (why go for the punt block when you're getting the ball back around midfield with a minute to go and instead wind up getting the roughing call and giving Georgia the ball back to kill the clock?) but Smart's decisions in the fourth quarter are the ones everyone is going to remember.

The funny thing is how Herbie mentioned that Smart knows how to bring pressure, and yet Georgia is one of the worst teams in the country at generating sacks, with only 20. Alabama has twice as many. Unless Smart has been saving something all year just for Tua on that end, the Dawgs are going to have trouble getting at him all day.

Rare that I agree with Cowherd, but he's right on this one. The more teams are allowed into the playoffs, the less important that regular season and conference championship games become. Not only that, but the less the whole exercise is about determining the best team in college football and the more it becomes about just crowning a champion that may have gotten hot at the right time. Look at the NCAA men's basketball tournament and see how rarely the truly best team in college basketball wins it versus some team that catches fire at the end or gets a few big breaks along the way. I have no interest in seeing some team that went 9-3 (or even 8-4) during the season walk away with the championship when they clearly did not earn it over the course of the entire year.

Actually the basketball thing between UA and UAB is more about lingering hostility from the personal hatred of Wimp Sanderson and Gene Bartow that still hovers over both programs but I do wish they'd get over it and start playing each other. As for a 9th conference game, I'm all for it. I hate us playing an FCS team in November, though of course that's a product of adding the 12th game to the regular season when that week was normally a bye week for almost the entire conference. While I'm at it, I'd suggest doing away with the divisions and taking the top-two teams for the SECCG, as well as every team having five permanent opponents and rotating the other eight so they actually play more often than once every seven years as they do now. Auburn in particular could benefit as not only could it keep its traditional rivalry games with Alabama and Georgia, it could get back its rivalry games with Tennessee and Florida.

OK, not sure if you're just trying to hype the Iron Bowl in your first section, but it simply ain't true in terms of Shula and Tuberville getting fired because they lost one Iron Bowl. In Tub's case, former head coach Pat Dye (who still wields tremendous power at AU) and BoT member Bobby Lowder wanted to get rid of Tuberville because of personal animosity between then and even sent a plane to Louisville on the eve of the Iron Bowl in 2003 to try to lure former Auburn OC and then-current UL head coach Bobby Petrino to come back to AU as the new HC. Then Tubs crushed Alabama, the plot was revealed even while the jet was on the ground in Louisville (Jetgate, as it has become known) and the plan fell apart. Auburn going unbeaten the next season and being in the middle of a AU-record six-game win streak against the Tide kept Tuberville safe until the 2008 season. Then Dye and Lowder finally set the trap for Tubs by allowing him to hire offensive guru Tony Franklin as OC but not allowing Franklin to bring his assistants that helped make his offense work. Tensions quickly mounted as Franklin became frustrated, the offense went into the tank, Auburn struggled mightily while at the same time Alabama became the first time in history to go from unranked to #1 within a single season in AP poll history. The 36-0 pasting (not 31-0) in Tuscaloosa that year merely put the cherry on top of the long plan to oust Tubs. Things were so far gone by then that had Tubs even pulled off the upset, Dye and Lowder were still not going to give Tubs yet another chance to escape, though it certainly would have created a lot more rancor in Auburn when they pulled the trigger. As for Shula, even the loss in 2006 (making him 0-4 versus Auburn) did not result in his immediate firing. Shula came into the program in 2003 with the Tide facing recruiting restrictions from probation after the Albert Means case and with the debacle that was the Mike Price hire. He coached his first season without even the benefit of a spring practice and finished 4-9 (the Tide used some obscure rule that allowed it to schedule a 13th game against Hawai'i in Honolulu) then improved to 6-6 before winning his first nine games of the 2005 season and reaching #3 in the polls. Things started falling apart in 2006 when the full effects of probation hit and Shula slid back to 6-6, but even after the Iron Bowl loss, most Tide fans still supported him, as did Moore. But there was a problem that Moore could no longer ignore: Shula wanted his players to see him more as a friend than as their coach and he hated to enforce discipline. The result was an Alabama team that became more thuggish by the day, resembling Jimmy Johnson-era Miami without the results. Players were even openly contemptuous of the rules, with one player who was arrested for marijuana and gun possession in the offseason commenting *to the media* that he figured his punishment would be an ice cream cone; he was suspended for one game in the *middle* of the season against Duke when he wasn't needed, anyway. The Monday after the Iron Bowl, Moore gave Shula one more chance by telling him to make changes to his program to show he had what it took to be successful; Shula had never fired an assistant coach to that point since he was friends with all of them, and instead of getting rid of the dead weight (which included his OC and QB coaches who feuded the entire season over who was in control of the offense) he kept them all and just shuffled their responsibilities. It was that lack of ability to do what needed to be done that got Shula canned, not that 22-15 loss to Auburn that year (though obviously it made it easier).

Tua's numbers would be video game-level insane if he played beyond the midpoint of the third quarter in the first eight games of the year. He's be knocking on 50 TD passes and 4,000 yards to this point. Murray has gotten much more playing time to pad his stats.

"Multiple" questionable calls...which turns out to be just two. On the fumble, it was a bad call, but Mississippi State's assistants in the booth were telling the sidelines that they did not think it was a fumble, so that one is them as much as it is on the refs. On the block in the back, crazymanatuca is right; had the defender kept his hands down it likely would not have been called as he made himself look guilty even though he wasn't. Still a bad call as the ref is supposed to call what he actually sees and not what he assumes happened, though.

"If winning at Kentucky wasn’t that difficult, then why on earth would we NOT pick against them at home against Auburn, UMass, or Georgia Tech?" Soooo...you're picking Georgia to lose all three?

And here I thought it was the far-right that was all about conspiracy theories....

The problem is that there is no guarantee at all that Alabama would once again make it in as a one-loss non-division winner. You know the committee is going to be sensitive to looking like it has a bias towards the Tide after including it last year over Ohio State (though the Buckeyes did have two losses even as B1G champs). Right now, Clemson appears to be a lock as there isn't anyone left on their schedule that should challenge them--though that's not stopped them from laying an egg before--and Notre Dame will be a big favorite on their remaining schedule--though don't sleep on Northwestern this weekend. That would leave a one-loss SEC champ (LSU/Georgia/Kentucky) for the third spot. But what if Michigan or Ohio State wins out as a one-loss BiG champ? Don't really think the committee puts 'Bama ahead of either of them. So while the SEC might actually want the Tide to lose this Saturday and enhance the chances of once again getting two teams in the playoff, Alabama really can't afford that gamble. Besides, it wants to hoist that trophy in Atlanta, too.

Here's an idea: Why not have a playoff for the G5? Essentially create a tier between the current FBS and FCS divisions made up of the G5, call it whatever you want, and have a playoff for them. Or does this make too much sense?

I saw one of the #freedevinwhite electronic billboards on I-65 North in Homewood this afternoon. My reaction: Thanks for investing in the Birmingham-area economy!

Really, why would the SEC protect Alabama against LSU? If anything, it would prefer seeing Alabama LOSE this game because it helps the league's chances with getting two teams into the playoffs again. 'Bama can afford a loss in Baton Rouge and play its way back in as at least a 4-seed, while the winner of an LSU-Georgia rematch in Atlanta would get in, as well.

The targeting rule has been in effect since 2013 and despite tweaks of all kinds, they still haven't gotten it right. I like the Targeting 1 (incidental) and Targeting 2 (flagrant) idea on principle, though knowing how the handling of this rule has played out it would also just be something else for the officials to screw up.

One small correction: Alabama is playing at Tennessee, not the other way around.

He hasn't faced any outstanding defenses this year, but Oklahoma QBs that have won the Heisman in the last 20 years have went the entire season against defense-optional teams and have not had the amazing accuracy and instinct Tua has shown. And the guy came off the bench at halftime with no snaps in a competitive game last year in the National Championship Game and threw for three touchdowns. How much more do you really need to see?

The biggest threat to Alabama is a two-dimensional QB, one who is as much a threat with his legs as he is with his arm. Right now, no one on the schedule has that. LSU, Mississippi State, and Auburn have defenses capable of keeping the Tide on the horizon on the scoreboard, but if they can't find a way to get three or even four touchdowns, they have no chance.

Wait, in that last sentence did Sheridan mean to say that Alabama *could* lose and still make the SEC Championship Game, or that he is predicting Auburn to win because 'Bama won't care and Auburn will have nothing to lose? Um, yeah Danny, I'm sure Tua and the offense is going to take the night off when he needs to continue burnishing his Heisman resume (because at some point his lower numbers because of his night being over by midway through the third quarter is going to start hurting him) while the team as a whole is wanting revenge from last year's Iron Bowl. Same is true for Georgia. And unless and until Malzahn solves the woes of his offense, Auburn can't win if it can't put at least a couple touchdowns on the board.