done ALABAMA FLORIDA SEC CHAMPIONSHIP 208
Alabama running back Glen Coffee (38) is wrapped up by Florida safety Ahmad Black (35), Florida defensive end Carlos Dunlap (8) and Florida defensive tackle Terron Sanders (92) in the third quarter of the SEC Championship game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Ga., Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008. (Birmingham News/ Mark Almond)
(MARK ALMOND)
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- Alabama notched an undefeated 2008 regular season, lost only to No. 2 and eventual national champion Florida and finished fourth in the BCS standings.
There was no four-team playoff in 2008, so there was minimal drama about Alabama's fate after its SEC Championship loss to the Gators. It was essentially locked into the Sugar Bowl, where it was upset by far-more-motivated Utah.
Maybe, fans would say, if Alabama had more to play for, its season would have ended on a better note.
According to a 17-person mock committee that met Thursday to go back in time, Alabama would have only had pride on the line even if there were a four-team playoff.
The Crimson Tide would have been on the outside looking in, according to the panel, and it wouldn't have even been the first team on the fringe. Alabama fell to sixth in the group's rankings while Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and USC would have made the playoff. Penn State was ranked No. 5.
The mock committee was made up entirely of media members from across the country. The group met in the same room where the real, 13-member committee will in coming weeks and went through a complete run-through of how the committee will decide on the top four teams in college football's first four-team playoff.
Making this particular year difficult for the committee was that no Power 5 schools were undefeated by the time it would have been to vote on a final four.
Florida, which was No. 2 in the nation when Alabama lost to the Gators in the SEC Championship, lost to unranked Ole Miss at home in late September. Though Oklahoma lost to Texas earlier in the season, it played for and won the Big 12 Championship because it came out on top of a three-way tie in its division. Texas' loss came later in the season at No. 6 Texas Tech. USC lost to unranked Oregon State three weeks into the season but ran the table from there and ultimately won the Pac-10.
Penn State lost at unranked Iowa, 24-23, in early November but was still good enough to be Big Ten champions. In 2008, there was no Big Ten championship game.
Alabama beat three top-15 teams during its undefeated 2008 regular season. Only one, Georgia, finished the season in the mock committee's top 25. Georgia, which was No. 3 in the country when Alabama beat the Bulldogs, finished 16th while Ole Miss, which was unranked when Alabama beat it, 24-20, finished 22nd.
SEC Communications Director Chuck Dunlap expressed skepticism at the mock committee's final four.