The Alabama Crimson Tide are drawing more and more believers ahead of Saturday night’s showdown with Georgia.
That chatter picked up another notch this week when Nick Saban and Miss Terry walked the red carpet for the premiere of the GOAT’s new documentary. And in the same stretch, the prediction business has started tilting Alabama’s way in a few corners, even if plenty of college football voices are still sticking with the Bulldogs.
One of the more notable examples came from the On3 Georgia Bulldogs site, which posted six predictions on Friday. Four of those six picked Alabama to win. None of the Georgia picks had the Crimson Tide winning by more than three points, but that still feels like enough to get the “rat poison” treatment from Nick Saban - and maybe Kalen DeBoer too.
Georgia’s side will almost certainly lean into the disrespect angle. Alabama backers, meanwhile, have plenty of numbers to point to.
The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs have met 76 times, and Saturday night will be the 12th time the rivalry has landed in Tuscaloosa. Alabama owns a 9-2 edge in the previous meetings there.
Across the full series, 15 games have been decided by three points or fewer, and four of those ended in ties. Alabama has also taken five straight regular-season games from Georgia.
That history is part of why Kirby Smart’s record against Alabama still makes Georgia fans wince. He’s 2-7 against the Crimson Tide and has never won in Tuscaloosa.
Looking at the broader national prediction scene, the split is just about dead even. I checked 24 individual picks from CBS Sports, USA Today Sports, Athlon Sports and AtoZ Sports, and they broke right down the middle: 12 for Alabama, 12 for Georgia.
That doesn’t exactly scream “Rat Poison.” If anything, it points to what this matchup looks like on paper - two teams so evenly matched that the safest label is simply toss-up.
In Other News...
Alabama Faces Ugly Fallout After Tense Georgia Finish
Alabama spent the postgame answering for much more than a hard-fought loss to Georgia, as the athletic department moved quickly to address what happened in the stands after the final whistle. Following the close finish and a night already defined by disputed officiating calls, fans threw garbage, including water bottles and beer cans, onto the field, creating an ugly scene that forced a public address announcement and had Georgia players keeping their helmets on as they made their way out.
The schools statement condemned the conduct as unacceptable, said it was gathering information and made clear it will not tolerate that kind of behavior. For Alabama, the fallout from a tense SEC showdown now stretches beyond the scoreboard, with the focus shifting to what comes next for a program that has long prided itself on home-field standards as much as results. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Fans Are Livid Over One Bigger SEC Question
Saturdays Alabama-Georgia game delivered the kind of heavyweight SEC finish that gets replayed and dissected long after the final whistle, but much of the attention afterward drifted away from the scoreboard and toward the officiating. Several moments drew scrutiny across social media, with players and commentators voicing frustration and confusion over how the game was called, a familiar kind of postgame noise in a rivalry game that already carries plenty of emotional weight.
For Alabama fans, the bigger concern now is what the conference does next, or whether it says anything at all. The late-game sequence under the microscope has only sharpened the debate, especially because the SEC has not issued a statement yet, and there is recent precedent for the league taking action after a controversial call in another game. Until the conference addresses it, the frustration around this one is likely to keep simmering. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Just Got Another Painful Reminder Of Where This Program Stands
The Coaches Poll got a fresh shakeup after a wild weekend, and the ripple effects reached well beyond the top of the board. Texas, which had been sitting at No. 1, was one of the biggest losers after falling to Oklahoma, while UCLA climbed after its upset win and teams like LSU and Oregon slid in the other direction as voters reworked the order heading into the next round of games.
Wake Forest also moved into the rankings, a reminder of how quickly the poll can turn when a few key results land the wrong way. For programs like Florida, the bigger takeaway is less about who rose and fell in one chaotic week and more about the gap the rankings still reflect, with the nations elite separating themselves fast and leaving everyone else trying to keep pace. [Read more 🡒]