CBS Sports sends strong warning to college football on Alabama and Ohio State

The Alabama Crimson Tide have earned their way into the hearts of college football pundits again, a month and a half after what seemed like an era-defining 31-17 loss to the Florida State Seminoles for Kalen DeBoer, with consecutive wins over the Tennessee Volunteers, Missouri Tigers, and Vanderbilt Commodores.

CBS Sports’ Thomas Casale puts the Crimson Tide in the Ohio State Buckeyes’ category of being favored over anyone else in the field. Casale ranked OSU as the definitive No. 1 team, but in the same tier as Alabama.

“Miami falls out of Tier 1 after losing at home to Louisville as close to two-touchdown favorites. The one constant over the last two months has been Ohio State. The Buckeyes have held the top spot since beating Texas back in August and likely won't get challenged until the season finale at Michigan. I think most people would agree that Ohio State and Alabama are the two top teams heading into Week 9,” Casale wrote.

DeBoer has done well to re-establish the “Bama Standard” in Tuscaloosa, but their dominance hasn’t touched Ohio State’s. OSU's outscoring opponents by 24, a full touchdown and PAT more than Alabama. Granted, if the Crimson Tide played the caliber of opponent the Wisconsin Badgers offered every week, perhaps this would be a different conversation.

Alabama has not regretted watching Julian Sayin dominate from an efficiency standpoint because Ty Simpson has offered a more shifty and mobile style of play built for athletic SEC defenses. Nick Saban’s last quarterback gem is hitting for Ryan Day and Brian Hartline, but his 2022 addition, who survived the Class of 2023 additions of Dylan Lonergan and Eli Holstein, is helping out DeBoer’s tenure after an offputting fit between Jalen Milroe and Nick Sheridan last year. Simpson and Ryan Grubb look made for each other.

Defensively, Kane Wommack’s group is rounding into form in year two, though not as impressively against Matt Patricia in his debut as defensive coordinator in Columbus. The competition caveat once again applies.

These loaded groups stand tall in college football, but the Buckeyes are likely still favored on a neutral field.

An Ohio State loss to the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor at the end of the season or the Big Ten Championship, plus one more loss somewhere in Alabama’s final five games, realistically against either the South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia, LSU Tigers or Oklahoma Sooners at Bryant-Denny Stadium, or the Iron Bowl at Jordan-Hare Stadium, possibly with an interim head coach given Hugh Freeze’s scorching hot seat with each piling loss, makes a matchup between the two on one of their homefields a possibility.

We’ll see if the college football gods will put Casale’s theory to the test. If they really are the definitive top two teams, we'll see them on each other's road to the College Football Playoff.