Alabama has one of the hardest schedules in college football per ESPN's FPI
Kalen DeBoer has a tall task ahead of him in 2024 as he is set to try and fill the shoes of the legendary Nick Saban, who stepped away from coaching after winning seven titles.
Six of those titles came in Tuscaloosa, and while fans shouldn't expect DeBoer to just walk right in and lead Alabama to one, there are certainly some hopeful fans out there who may think they are due for one. However, based on ESPN's FPI rankings, which have Alabama as the No. 5 team in the country, it could be an extremely difficult path to a title and may even to contention in the SEC.
Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer
Alabama Athletics
ESPN's FPI as explained on the site:
"The Football Power Index (FPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team's performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 20,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule."
Using those simulations and rankings, things such as rankings, playoff chances, conference champion chances, and strength of schedule were determined. A metric that Alabama ranked extremely high in:
This doesn't come as a surprise considering they play six games against teams ranked inside the top-20, with four of those games coming against teams in the top-10.
With the expanded playoff there is more room for error for a team like Alabama, but that doesn't mean they are going to want to have to worry about getting an at-large bid with how deep the conference is.
