Alabama Football's Leaders Still Care About Winning Conference Championship

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama football has one path to the College Football Playoffs in order to win the 19th national championship in program history, winning the next two games against Eastern Illinois and Auburn.

Should the Crimson Tide handle its business against an FCS squad and its rival, games Alabama will be favored in a familiar hurdle will be thrust into their championship path, an SEC championship exhibition matchup against either Texas A&M or Georgia.

The SEC championship game has lost seemingly lost its luster amongst fans over the last year with the expansion of the playoff field to 12 teams. Seven of the eight conference title game participants qualified for the playoff field a year ago, making the game far less of a play-in scenario and much more of an unnecessary risk.

Ohio State steamrolled the competition in 2024, winning four College Football Playoff games by an average margin of victory of 17.5 points to claim the national championship, despite not playing in the Big 10 title game. The Buckeyes' strong performance spurred theories that rest and recuperation for a long postseason were more important than a conference title.

"We want to win the SEC championship and win the national championship every year, " Alabama offensive lineman Geno VanDeMark said on Tuesday. "That's the standard here. That's our goal every year. That's not changing, regardless of whatever playoff implications that might have. We want to win the SEC and we want to win the natty."

Alabama lost star receiver John Metchie to a knee injury in its 2021 SEC Championship game victory over Georgia, and was unable to overcome the loss of Jameson Williams in the national title game, ultimately falling short of its championship aspirations. The Crimson Tide needed the conference title victory in 2023 to move from No. 8 to No. 4 but the expansion of the playoff to 12 programs creates a reevaluation of the games importance.

Regardless of the outside noise, the Alabama football players want to get to Atlanta and win due to the prestige the game's always carried.

"Yeah, of course. SEC is truly the best conference in all of college football, and just having that alone is kind of comparing it to like a national championship just because of how hard our league is," Alabama Bandit LT Overton said. "Anything that we can end up putting on the wall, making a memory of, means a lot."

Despite the potential rematch with No. 5 Georgia or a date with No. 3 Texas A&M looming in the distance, the Crimson Tide knows the next two games will be a challenge. Eastern Illinois should offer the program an opportunity to regroup after its loss to Oklahoma, but a road trip against an Auburn team with nothing to lose and everything to gain is extremely dangerous.

"I'm not really worried about a conference championship," Alabama linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green said. "We've got to win out. So I'm just focused on these two games."