Should Alabama be Considered the Football Team to Beat in 2024?
The 2023-24 season came to a close on Monday evening, and while the debate will only begin about whether or not there should be an asterisk or more on the College Football Playoff and national championship, the rest of the sport has already started to look ahead an move forward, including the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Like usual, Nick Saban's program will go through a lot of turnover, but it's already obvious that Alabama will have numerous key pieces returning including starting quarterback Jalen Milroe.
What's the perception of the 2024-25 Crimson Tide? Let's just say the favorites to win the next national title look very familiar. Odds courtesy of BetOnline:
Odds on National Championship Winner
Team, Odds
Georgia 5/1
Alabama 11/2 (+550)
Ohio State 15/2
Texas 9/1
Michigan 10/1
LSU 12/1
Oregon 12/1
Ole Miss 14/1
Florida State 18/1
Penn State 25/1
Tennessee 25/1
Notre Dame 28/1
Clemson 30/1
Texas A&M 33/1
Southern California 33/1
Oklahoma 40/1
Missouri 50/1
Washington 50/1
Heisman Trophy Odds
Not surprisingly, the favorites are all quarterbacks. One thing that's different about the frontrunner, though, is he hasn't been through the NCAA transfer portal.
Name (School) Odds
Jalen Milroe (Alabama) 7/1
Carson Beck (Georgia) 8/1
Quinn Ewers (Texas) 8/1
Dillon Gabriel (Oregon) 9/1
Will Howard (Ohio State) 10/1
J.J. McCarthy (Michigan) 16/1
Nico Imaleava (Tennessee) 16/1
Conor Weigman (Texas A&M) 18/1
Jackson Arnold (Oklahoma) 18/1
Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss) 18/1
Garrett Nussmeier (LSU) 22/1
Riley Leonard (Notre Dame) 22/1
Shedeur Sanders (Colorado) 25/1
Super-Early 2024 Preseason Rankings
This is now a thing, for news outlets to publish "Way-Too-Early" rankings immediately after the national title is decided. Here's a sampling, but one has to wonder if any of these people watched the SEC Championship Game:
Mark Schlabach, ESPN
- Georgia
- Texas
- Oregon
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Michigan
- Ole Miss
- Missouri
- Arizona
- Notre Dame
Athlon
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Texas
- Michigan
- Ohio State
- Oregon
- Ole Miss
- Missouri
- Penn State
- Notre Dame
PFF
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Texas
- Michigan
- Ole Miss
- Ohio State
- Oregon
- Penn State
- Missouri
- Arizona
Brett McMurphy, Action Network
(This assumes Jim Harbaugh stays with the Wolverines)
- Georgia
- Michigan
- Oregon
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Texas
- Notre Dame
- Arizona
- Ole Miss
- Missouri.
Dennis Dodd, CBSSports.com
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Michigan
- Oregon
- Ole Miss
- Ohio State
- Texas
- Missouri
- Notre Dame
- Arizona
Meanwhile, the final AP Top 25 poll released early Tuesday morning after the National Championship Game dropped the Crimson Tide to No. 5, behind Georgia.
Just like that: Instant motivation for a team that came a long way this past season, that no one will want to face in the expanded College Football Playoff.
