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Alabama football has already completed its season, knocking off Kansas State 45-20 in the Sugar Bowl to likely finish with a top-four record — but despite them not making the College Football Playoff’s final four, one fan shared on a message board a wild scenario that would crown the Crimson Tide the true champions of the 2022 season.
The RedditCFB Twitter account shared a user who claimed that with a TCU win over Georgia, Alabama would claim the sport’s top spot on Jeff Sagarin’s ranking system. Needless to say, fans had a field day with that claim:
this is the most massive copium I’ve ever seen
— Robert Baestlein (@RobertBeastlein) January 1, 2023
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Is that a Nick Saban burner account?
— Aimee 〽️🐊⚔️🐙🦁🐯🏎🏁 (@GatorTapeGirl) January 1, 2023
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Bru they’re national champs almost every year they seriously can’t handle one off year?
— Bradley Bacon (@BradleyBacon8) January 2, 2023
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Somebody had this thought, wrote it out, and then put it on the internet. https://t.co/yoBo5cfhAz
— Charles Parrish (@standingpolicy) January 2, 2023
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I swear to God if Bama does this, their entire fan base owes UCF an apology. https://t.co/RiaUc2FOzO
— Wade (@UCF_Orca) January 1, 2023
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The irony isn’t lost that the last time a team tried to claim a national championship was UCF, who did so the same season Alabama defeated Georgia in the College Football Playoff title game on January 8, 2018.
TCU is the Antithesis of Alabama Football
This year’s College Football Playoff field featured three teams that have all made appearances before and one party-crasher that went 5-7 a season ago and joined a Power Five conference a decade ago. TCU, of which the latter description applies to, finished with one 3-point loss, while Alabama football finished with two losses by a total of four points.
Even with the Big 12 title loss to Kansas State, whose own loss to the Tide opened up this long-winded path for the aforementioned message board user to come up with the theory, TCU was able to reach the CFP field due to convincing wins in conference play over Texas, Kansas State, and Texas Tech.
While no one gave them a shot to make anything close to the amount of noise they’ve made in 2022 before the season began, TCU has become an underdog story for the ages — a label no one will ever associate with an Alabama program that missed just its second CFP during the current campaign since its inception in 2014.
Fans Thought Alabama Should Have Been in CFP During Sugar Bowl
Even after upsetting Michigan 51-45 as a touchdown-underdog during the Fiesta Bowl, TCU is still not getting much respect from oddsmakers. The Horned Frogs are opening up as two-touchdown underdogs against Georgia in the College Football Playoff title game.
As Alabama was crushing Kansas State during the Sugar Bowl, many shared their belief that the Crimson Tide were deserving of a spot in the final CFP field (h/t Sports Illustrated):
I’m glad they are not but Alabama probably should’ve made the playoff
— Jonny Linehan (@jlinehan9) December 31, 2022
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Uh, just as I was saying when the College Football Playoff selections were made, Alabama would kick the crap out of TCU…
#35-10— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) December 31, 2022
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As I thought before this game…Alabama should be in the playoff over TCU
— Blake Levine (@blake_levine) December 31, 2022
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2022 will always be a coulda-woulda-shoulda season for Crimson Tide fans. What if they had made the stop in OT in Baton Rouge against LSU? What if Will Reichard had made the field goal with 3:11 left on the clock in the fourth quarter? When it’s all said and done, the Tide were Sugar Bowl champions, but they were almost so much more.
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Twitter Responds to Claim Alabama Football Would be Actual Champion if TCU Wins CFP