There’s been a lot of talk around college football lately wondering whether or not Nick Saban‘s Alabama dynasty is finally over. And while it’s too early to declare a verdict one way or another, it’s undeniable that the Crimson Tide armor Saban’s charges have worn into battle over the past eight seasons is beginning to show some rust.
First, consider Alabama is just 2-5 against Top 15 opponents since Auburn’s Kick Six in November 2013. You may not have known that stat, but the sharps in Vegas do. And on Sunday they installed No. 8 Georgia, not No. 13 Alabama, as early favorites as the Tide visit Athens on Saturday.
That ends an unprecedented streak of 72 straight games that Alabama was installed as a betting favorite. Alabama hasn’t stepped on the field as an underdog since the 2009 SEC Championship, a game the Tide won, 32-13.
Georgia will open as 1-point favorite vs. Alabama says @LVSuperBook, ending Bama’s record streak of 72 consecutive games as favorite
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 27, 2015
Again, considering the gravity of what we’re saying here. Just because Alabama isn’t an initial favorite on the road against the eighth-ranked team in college football doesn’t mean they’re suddenly Texas. There are, what, five teams that wouldn’t enter a trip between the hedges as underdogs in college football - and possibly less than that.
The Tide is still better than 90 percent of its peers, and may very well work itself back into the national championship picture in late November for the seventh time in the last eight years.
But it’s clear the days of Alabama simply strapping up intimidating their ways to victory over good teams are over. And the folks in Vegas are banking that the public knows it.