NORMAN, Okla. — The mystery was supposed to take at least another week or two to solve.
The fate of the Alabama football season looked destined to carry suspense into December and, perhaps, into January. All the Crimson Tide had to do was keep winning. It didn't at all hold up that end of the bargain on Saturday in losing to Oklahoma 24-3, and as a result, all the mystery has unraveled.
We know the Crimson Tide will be on the couch watching the SEC Championship Game in two weeks.
We know the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff field will convene without it.
And we know roster turmoil is afoot.
The NCAA's winter transfer portal opens in roughly two weeks, at which point we'll begin to get an idea of which players are behind new coach Kalen DeBoer and which have had enough of the Alabama experience. In the days and weeks after that, some NFL-bound players could announce that they will opt out of whatever bowl game extends the Crimson Tide a bid.
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That's never happened at Alabama before, thanks largely to the leadership of the 2022 team that, at the behest of eventual captains Bryce Young and Will Anderson, stuck together for a non-playoff Sugar Bowl that year and beat Kansas State. Bowl opt-outs have been in vogue for years now, sparked initially by the early exits of LSU running back Leonard Fournette and Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey in 2016. It's remarkable that Alabama has been untouched by that trend for as long as it has.
Much like that 2022 team, DeBoer's first team is now faced with much the same situation: hold it together for an Iron Bowl that will have no stakes beyond bragging rights and a subsequent bowl game that will have to serve as a bridge between a season that can only be described as a disappointment and one that fans will expect to be better.
The comparison between what Alabama faces now and what it faced almost exactly two years ago isn't lost on offensive guard Tyler Booker , whose leadership in the Alabama locker room is unquestioned.
"Their leadership and the way they played and gave their all in that Sugar Bowl really propelled the next year's team," Booker said. "That gave us a lot of momentum. We built off that, and we made a playoff run (in 2023)."
Holding down a locker room under a seven-time national championship coach with an established, winning culture is one thing. Doing it under a first-year coach is something entirely different. That makes the challenge faced by Booker and UA's three other team captains − QB Jalen Milroe , DB Malachi Moore and now-injured LB Deontae Lawson − a much tougher task. But the more immediate challenge has nothing to do with opt-outs.
An Iron Bowl is at hand.
Nothing sours an Alabama season like a loss to Auburn . For fans, missing out on a playoff is a bruise that can heal by August, gone with the hope that comes with a new team and a fresh schedule. The bruise left by a loss to the Tigers lingers at least 365 days, or until the score is settled.
With a triple overtime win over Texas A&M , the Tigers did to the Aggies what OU did to Alabama, and what Florida did to Ole Miss . On a single Saturday, Auburn, Oklahoma and Florida dashed playoff hopes for three of the SEC's two-loss teams, which means Alabama isn't the only team in the league picking up its teeth entering Week 14.
But if it needs any reminders, the 2022 Alabama team with no more to play for beat Auburn 49-27.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football will be playing for pride, not playoff, in Iron Bowl
