Alabama Football: Brutal November Will Define Tide's Season

When the first in-season rankings for the College Football Playoff come out on Tuesday, there will be much consternation and disagreement over resumes, placement, injuries and more.

It is inevitable. It is also what makes college football so fun.

Plenty of that will revolve around Alabama, currently the highest-ranked one-loss team in both the AP and Coaches polls. The Crimson Tide, though, are currently third in their own division, behind undefeated and unanimous No. 1 Mississippi State and Ole Miss, which beat Alabama three weeks ago but suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday to LSU.

For Alabama, (and probably for the rest of college football) these midseason rankings will be a meaningless exercise. The Crimson Tide have made several strong statements so far this season and looked weak at other times, in both wins and losses.

But Alabama’s resume and body of work is far from incomplete, more so than many of the top teams in the country against whom it will by vying for one of those four coveted spots.

The Crimson Tide’s brutal November gauntlet (which features three teams in the AP top 16 and two in the top four) will ultimately define the 2014 team, for better or for worse, and provide more evidence as to whether Alabama truly deserves to be in the inaugural playoff.

Let’s take a look at the three toughest games that lay ahead for Alabama after a bye week to rejuvenate.

At No. 16 LSU

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At the beginning of the season, this looked yet again like it would be another epic clash of two SEC West titans. When the Tigers dropped two early games against Mississippi State and Auburn, though, much of the wind came out of that sail.

But LSU’s home upset of then-No. 3 Ole Miss flipped the SEC West on its side and suddenly this game means everything again. The Tigers finally look like the uber-talented, win-with-brute-force team we’ve come to know and love.

Still, this being the only road game Alabama has left works out in the Crimson Tide’s favor. It will be the easiest, on paper, of the three.

LSU’s strength on offense is its run game. Freshman Leonard Fournette is coming into his own, rushing for more than 100 yards in three of his last five games, including 113 in Saturday’s win. The Tigers have the second-most rushing yards in the SEC, behind only Arkansas.

That plays right into Alabama’s hands.

The Crimson Tide’s run defense is tops in the SEC. Alabama held Arkansas to just 89 yards on the ground, the Razorbacks’ lowest total of the year.

You can never count out Les Miles in Tiger Stadium, as we found out yet again on Saturday. But of these three games, this one appears to be the easiest.

Vs. No. 1 Mississippi State

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Alabama-Mississippi State falls this year where it typically does on the Crimson Tide’s schedule—right after a physical game against LSU. This usually results in a sloppy game against an undermatched Bulldogs team, giving Alabama coach Nick Saban plenty to work on before the Iron Bowl.

That can’t be the case this year.

Mississippi State is the top-ranked team in the country and playing like it. Quarterback Dak Prescott is leading a very efficient offense, and the Bulldogs have as good of a defensive line as there is in college football.

Mississippi State knocked off LSU, Texas A&M and Auburn in back-to-back-to-back weeks to prove their No. 1 ranking. Everything is coming together for Dan Mullen in his sixth year as head coach.

Simply put: this isn’t the game for another annual letdown.

This game is in Bryant-Denny Stadium, though, which is huge for Alabama. It is averaging almost 50 points per game and more than 600 yards of offense at home. The Bulldogs have only won eight times in Tuscaloosa since these two teams started playing in the late 1800s.

This game has the potential to be a 1-vs.-3 or even 1-vs.-2 game in three weeks and will be one of the biggest games of the year in college football.

Vs. No. 4 Auburn

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Is any rematch more anticipated?

A year after the greatest play in college football history ended Alabama’s perfect season and sent Auburn to the SEC Championship and BCS National Championship, the Tigers and Tide finish the season in a follow-up to that epic night.

Should Auburn beat Ole Miss this weekend and Alabama take down Mississippi State, then the Magnolia State’s brief grasp on college football will be over, and it will be the state of Alabama that will determine who goes to Atlanta.

The Tigers are clicking on all cylinders offensively, trailing only Alabama in the SEC in yards per play and only by .05 yards. Its defense, though, is middle-of-the-road in the SEC, giving up just 362.4 yards per game, ninth in the league.

Even if it doesn’t end up being for the SEC West, the game will have huge implications for both teams’ playoff destinies.

Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All stats come from cfbstats.

Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.