ESPN Power Index: Alabama ranked No. 2 overall, highest-rated SEC team

ESPN Power Index: Alabama ranked No. 2 overall, highest-rated SEC team

College football is five days away. Ahead of Week 0 kickoffs, multiple news sites are putting out their final batch of preseason lists and odds. Where does Alabama football rank?

According to ESPN, it should be another successful, if not tense, season in Tuscaloosa. ESPN’s Football Power Index — a “predictive rating system” that calculates team performance based on returning starters, recruiting rankings and coach tenure — has the Tide as the No. 2 team in the country, behind Ohio State and ahead of Georgia. Alabama’s Week 2 opponent Texas is No. 5

Nick Saban’s group has a 57.1% chance of making the College Football Playoff and the odds of Alabama going undefeated are 15.3%, according to the service. Georgia was given the best odds to win the SEC at 42.9%.

In many early evaluations, there is a lack of consensus about where Alabama currently ranks. The Associated Press top 25 poll, voted on by journalists, placed the Tide fourth. A panel of 63 college coaches tabbed Alabama as the third-best team in the country, as did The Athletic.

Ohio State, Georgia and the Tide will debut new starting quarterbacks this fall. Alabama, unlike the Buckeyes and Bulldogs, has yet to name its starter. Saban hasn’t mentioned “rat poison” directly, instead citing personal growth for the players among his early points of emphasis.

“I think the goal of camp has been ‘How many guys can we get to elevate their game to where they can play consistent, winning football and the other players can trust them to do what they’re supposed to do?’ And I think we made a significant amount of improvement in this camp,” Saban said following Alabama’s second scrimmage.

The Tide has finished its two scrimmages and will finish fall camp this week before starting preparation for Middle Tennessee State on Sept. 2 in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

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Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].