The Alabama Crimson Tide are starting to venture into uncharted territory. At least for them.
The Crimson Tide fell all the way down to No. 21 in this week’s AP Poll following an ugly Week 1 loss to Florida State, making it the program’s lowest ranking in nearly two decades.
You have to go all the way back to the start of the Nick Saban era to find the last time Alabama was ranked this low nationally. The Crimson Tide finished the 2007 unranked, and then opened 2008 with the No. 24 ranking in the country. They jumped up to No. 13 the following week and did not leave the top 20 until this latest ranking.
That is a stretch of 16 years consistently in the top 20.
The Crimson Tide still remain ranked — for now — and have been for 280 consecutive polls. But one more ugly loss — or any loss in general — in the coming weeks could put that streak in serious jeopardy.
It also should be in jeopardy.
As bad as Saturday’s game against Florida State was, it was not a totally out-of-nowhere performance.
With that loss, Alabama is just 5-5 in its past 10 games going back to the 2024 season, with three losses to unranked opponents in that stretch of games. Almost any other program would have a hard time still finding a way to crack the rankings, but Alabama’s past success and reputation are always going to carry a lot of weight in the eyes of voters.
Alabama has a very winnable game at home this Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe, before a tough stretch of games against Wisconsin, No. 4 Georgia and a Vanderbilt team that upset Alabama a year ago.
If it drops one or two of those games it could bring its stretch of consecutive poll appearances to an end, and only increase the pressure on second-year head coach Kalen DeBoer.
