Alabama Fans Will Be Depressed Over Latest Ranking

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The Alabama Crimson Tide were once the most dominant team in the college football landscape, and that wasn't even that long ago. Heck, it was within the last decade.

But times have changed.

Nick Saban is no longer in charge in Tuscaloosa, and NIL has absolutely taken a big bite out of Alabama's competitive advantage.

Now, the Crimson Tide are just a run-of-the-mill good program, and ESPN's David Hale made that very clear in his newest set of rankings heading into the 2026 season.

Hale separated all 138 FBS into tiers, and he placed Alabama in Tier 4, a group entitled "We're still here." Joining the Tide? Michigan, Ole Miss and Utah.

"Seeing Alabama in Tier 4 is like walking out to your driveway and finding George Clooney living next door. The neighborhood is fine, but shouldn't they be somewhere nicer?" Hale wrote. "And yet, there's no sugarcoating that this is, at best, a B+ version of the program that owned college football for the better part of the 21st century. It's nowhere near the Mike Shula dark ages, but it's not all that close to the 2020 juggernaut either."

Alabama has gone 20-8 since Kalen DeBoer took over as head coach in 2024. Last year, the Crimson Tide won 11 games and were routed by Indiana in the Rose Bowl.

"For most programs, this wouldn't be an insult, but the hard truth? Alabama is good. Not great. Not elite. Not generational. Good," Hale added.

Hale also doesn't seem entirely sure if DeBoer will keep his job beyond this season.

"Now, perhaps there's a world where Austin Mack or Keelon Russell wins the starting job and revives the behemoth and the hand-wringing all looks a little silly. But there's just as likely a chance that Kalen DeBoer is sipping cocktails with Shula in South Beach next fall, enjoying the fruits of an ill-timed contract extension while someone else tries to right the ship," he concluded.

There has certainly been more than enough criticism of DeBoer over his first couple of years at 'Bama, and it doesn't appear that he has built a team strong enough to overcome that going into Year 3 of his tenure.

Of course, as Hale noted, there is a chance that Alabama proves everyone wrong this fall, but there seems to be a much more significant chance that the Crimson Tide are merely a quasi-contender rather than an actual national championship competitor.

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