When it comes to college football, the SEC ranks as the best of the Power Five conferences. And when it comes to the SEC, the Alabama Crimson Tide ranks as the best team in the league. Alabama is the dominant team of the sport, let alone its best league, and there is no reason to expect otherwise in the season ahead. But as loaded and powerful as the Crimson Tide will be, the SEC is the most challenging conference to win. Injuries, bad breaks, and the unforeseen can all work against Alabama in their quest for the SEC title. Also, keep in mind that Alabama has won the national championship without winning the SEC title. The last time was in 2017 and illustrated how mighty the league is, compared to the rest of power five. Let’s take a look at the best of the SEC for 2021.

The Machine – Alabama Crimson Tide

Alabama has won the SEC championship seven times since 2009. The LSU Tigers and Auburn Tigers are next best with two crowns in that span, while the Georgia Bulldogs have one title. The best reason to bet on Alabama is Nick Saban’s track record as head coach of the Crimson Tide. Saban has built a championship program in the most robust sense of the term. Players and assistant coaches come and go, but Alabama still wins big.

The Crimson Tide enters the 2021 season with what is being touted to be the best recruiting class in college football history. And that is on top of past classes ranked at or near the top for over a decade. The only thing that may worry some gamblers, and perhaps Saban himself, is that the Crimson Tide will struggle to match their perfection of 2020. The level that Alabama reached for its 2020 campaign is generational. Performing at such a level for two straight years will be impossible. But impossible is what Nick Saban does.

It is far more challenging to establish and maintain a dynasty in today’s college football than it was during the late great Paul “Bear” Bryant’s day leading the Crimson Tide. In today’s college football, Saban must deal with scholarship limitations and programs with the same television revenue as the Crimson Tide. When Bryant patrolled the Alabama sideline, there were just a handful of legitimate contenders. Now, any number of teams must be taken seriously because of those aforementioned equalizing factors. Yet Saban has proven that he can overcome these obstacles like nobody else.

Next Year’s Team – Georgia Bulldogs

The Georgia Bulldogs are annually accorded the status of a program that routinely wins national championships. The reality is that Georgia’s last natty was all the way back in 1980 when Herschel Walker was powering his way to glory as the best running back in the game. That was only the second time in history that the Bulldogs won the national championship, with 1942 being the other occurrence.

Georgia has long been one of college football’s unfulfilled promises. But there are signs that UGA is ready to emerge for 2021. Head coach Kirby Smart arrived at Athens in 2016 after serving under Nick Saban as Alabama’s defensive coordinator from 2007 through 2015. While at Tuscaloosa, Smart learned to recruit at an elite level and how an SEC dynasty is built and maintained. Smart produced another top-three recruiting class for this year, headlined by five-star quarterback Brock Vandagriff. The arrival of Vandagriff demonstrates that Smart is ready to evolve offensively with a more up-tempo attack,

The Ultimate Wannabe – Texas A&M Aggies

Texas A&M has the fan support, donors, administration, and commitment of a national champion. All the Aggies lack is a history of playing at that level. But head coach Jimbo Fisher is building a program set to embark on new heights for this program that has always strived to be a national power but has always gotten in its own way. Fisher has stepped up recruiting to an elite level. Further momentum comes from a 2019 record of 9-1 and a final national ranking of fourth. Fisher knows what building a national champion takes, as evidenced by his time at Florida State, where he won three ACC titles and the 2013 national championship.