Mandel: Balancing Your Bama Fatigue With Bama Facts

In an interesting mailbag, we get this:

I get that much of the country suffers from 'Bama fatigue. I get that there's a large contingent of the public that believes any positive word I write about the Tide is due entirely to #BIAS. And I get that many people in Ohio view last year's semifinal as definitive proof that the same thing would happen again if Alabama makes this year's playoff.

So I knew when I saw the latest rankings that the " ... but who have they beat???" crowd would come out in spades, because sure enough, Alabama is now down to just one Top 25 win -- against No. 21 Mississippi State. Look, there are plenty of metrics that will tell you Alabama has in fact played one of the toughest schedules in the country, even with last week's Charleston Southern game included. Their FBS opponents are a combined 67-40 (.626). No other contender's is even .600. They've played nine teams with winning records, also higher than any contender. Iowa, by contrast, has played three. And most impressively of all, the Tide have played six teams that are currently 7-3 or better. They lost one of those games, to Ole Miss, but the five wins have come by an average margin of 20.6 points.


========================


It's amusing to read the comments that folks in Ohio think that because they beat Alabama last year, the same thing would happen this year. Maybe he's trolling, but should I point out that last year Ohio State lost to Va Tech but won this year? Or that last year they beat Michigan State but lost this year?

I mean, this entire 'last year' argument is absurd on its face. (You don't see me using it, and I chide those who do). The only thing Alabama has in common with last year so far is both years we lost by six to Ole Miss (and most likely on Saturday, still won the SEC West anyway).

Alabama was gonna lose to Texas (seriously, some folks here tried that argument) because Utah "exposed" us in 2008. I mean, where does that absurdity end?

Note that Mandel is actually taking up for us (yet again, he did it last week also).

But assuming we get there (I take nothing for granted) and play Oklahoma, y'all better get ready for:

1) Alabama hasn't beaten Oklahoma since (whenever - seriously, when was it? 1963?)

2) Oklahoma beat Tennessee by 7 on the road while Alabama only beat them by 5 at home (what won't get mentioned is that it took OU extra time and that the Vols had an off week before our game and we played them right after the UGA-Arkansas-ATM gauntlet)

3) 8 million references to the 'overrated' Alabama of the 2014 Sugar Bowl



As far as Ohio State - I have a buddy from New Knoxville who now lives in Jersey and we correspond about it. He said the team is lacking in leadership players this year that they had last year - that guys stepped up and took charge when it mattered.

I would throw in the fact its damned near impossible to win two in a row. Alabama is not the 'new normal' for national champions, we are the outlier. Look at the back-to-back champions since the AP poll started in 1936:

1940-41 Minnesota
1944-45 Army
1946-47 Notre Dame
1955-56 Oklahoma
1964-65 Alabama
1970-71 Nebraska
1978-79 Alabama
1994-95 Nebraska
2003-04 USC
2011-12 Alabama

Note that the first four of those were in the segregationist days and without being mean don't amount to much (cherish them but contextualize them), the 64-65 Alabama titles owe themselves solely to folks getting upset because the bowl games didn't count (completely unique situation), 78-79 Alabama was controversial due to the head-to-head loss to USC, and USC's was controversial because they didn't win the BCS. Even our last two can be chalked up to the luck of Ohio State being on probation in 2012.

In all seriousness, even the BEST teams that go back-to-back require a little luck. I'd have to hunt it but I very explicitly predicted on here that Ohio State would NOT get through the regular season unscathed even when many Tide fans here were ranting about their schedule.

And I'm a defender of them as a very good team, but they've never really clicked this year. At least when Florida slugged it out with close wins in 2006, it was because they had the toughest schedule in the nation. Ohio St was having trouble with teams their talent should easily have beaten this year.

Look, I get this point - you can have a schedule before the season that looks incredibly challenging and then stuff happens that makes it rather soft. Auburn implodes to 3-9 when they're expected to contend or UGA loses Chubb and implodes. I think it all has to be looked at in context.

Many of the folks complaining about the Alabama schedule need to remember two very important things:

1) you folks complaining the Tide hasn't beaten teams still ranked are the same ones who declared us dead and buried and gone in September......this is not a reflection of Alabama, it's a reflection of the stupidity of pundits (I'm amazed at how the same clowns week after week can declare a team like UGA to be great and the moment we beat them it becomes "they weren't so great after all" - but all that proves is what a lousy pundit the pundit actually is

2) despite the whining, Alabama DOES NOT CONTROL the SEC portion of their schedule. Do any of you REALLY think Alabama would choose to play more games than anyone while facing RESTED TEAMS? OF COURSE NOT!!!! Regarding the OOC, the Tide blistered Wisconsin by 18 points in a game that wasn't that close.......the only other Badgers losses were by four to unbeaten Iowa and by six to Northwestern (poor Wisky has lost 3 games to teams with a combined record of 30-3). Nobody suggests MTSU, ULM, or CS are great teams but simply compare them with who Baylor, for example, plays out of conference.

Wanna know the last decent team Baylor faced outside the Big 12 in the regular season? I guess it was TCU in 2011, when the Frogs were in the MWC and defending Rose Bowl champions. Art Briles has become the masterful Bill Snyder of Waco - take over a moribound program, line up four suicide jockeys for your OOC and then figure if you go 2-6 in conference you can go to a bowl game (and really - with a conference featuring the likes of Iowa State and Kansas, you have your six wins and can try to beat whichever mid-level foe you get an extra week to prepare for.


Fact is that Alabama has played the toughest schedule in the nation thus far and stubbed its toe once. Still to come are a 6-5 team and a 10-2 or 11-1 team at a neutral site.

If the team wins out, it deserves the playoff spot it will get.