Is Alabama's 2015 Schedule the Toughest of the Nick Saban Era?

For all of the praise and accolades heaped on Alabama and Nick Saban during their tear through college football together—and it is all much deserved—they still have only gone undefeated, perfect, through an entire football season once.

There have been several years where the Crimson Tide have clearly been the best team in the country, but only once could they do it without sustaining a loss.

It’s a testament not only to the grueling road of the SEC but also to his teams’ resiliency to fight back and regroup.

If Alabama fans are looking for a year for their team to run the gantlet for the first time since 2009, though, this might not be that year.

The Crimson Tide have plenty of holes, yes, but even if those get filled, they face what is shaping up to be their toughest slate since the start of the Saban era.

Date	Opponent	Opp 2014 W-L
9/5	Wisconsin	11-3
9/12	Middle Tennessee	6-6
9/19	Ole Miss	9-4
9/26	Louisiana-Monroe	4-8
10/3	at Georgia	10-3
10/10	Arkansas	7-6
10/17	at Texas A&M	8-5
10/24	Tennessee	7-6
11/7	LSU	8-5
11/14	at Mississippi State	10-3
11/21	Charleston Southern	8-4
11/28	at Auburn	8-5

College football guru Phil Steele is already projecting Alabama to have the toughest road in the country this year:

Elsewhere, FBSSchedules.com, using the NCAA’s purely win-loss record method for calculating strength of schedule, put Washington No. 1 with Alabama at No. 4. Bleacher Report’s Greg Wallace thought the Crimson Tide’s 2015 slate to be the toughest in the nation.

Of course, none of this will be able to be determined objectively until the end of the season, when we have a better feel for the overall strength of certain teams.

Still, 2015 is shaping up to be the toughest during Saban’s tenure.

For starters, it’s hard to imagine a time when Alabama’s division was this formidable, top to bottom.

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At the top, both Auburn should be much improved, with Jeremy Johnson taking over at quarterback and Will Muschamp coming in to run the defense. LSU is loaded as usual but needs to sort out its quarterback issue, which was still able to take Alabama down to the wire last season.

It’s hard to see the Mississippi schools maintaining their momentum from last season, but there shouldn’t be too much of a drop-off. Dan Mullen and Hugh Freeze have proved that they can be dangerous coaches.

Arkansas is a sexy surprise team pick, and for good reason. The Razorbacks shut out Ole Miss and LSU late in the season and thumped Texas in their bowl game. Head coach Bret Bielema’s installation of his suffocating style on both sides of the ball is finally coming together.

The perceived “worst” team in the league, Texas A&M, will have another year of experience under a 5-star quarterback with a nasty receiving corp, and it just brought in one of the best defensive coordinators in the league, John Chavis.

And gone are the days of Alabama’s weak Eastern division schedule.

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This may be the best Tennessee team Alabama has had to face, though that isn’t saying much. And it draws Georgia as its rotational opponent.

Wisconsin serves as the Power Five opener, hardly a cakewalk either.

Alabama can’t look away from home field much for relief, either. It draws Georgia, Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Auburn for its road games. None of those four can be considered sure things by any stretch of the imagination.

If you’re looking for a year where Alabama may have had a tougher schedule, there’s a good argument to be made for 2010.

That year, the Crimson Tide drew Florida and South Carolina from the East, the latter handing Alabama its first loss of the year.

But what made that year especially tough was the placement. It faced six straight SEC teams who were coming off of a bye week and essentially had two weeks to prepare.

Still, the West wasn’t nearly as strong back then, and Alabama had more relief in getting Florida and Auburn at home.

This year, Alabama’s East rotation shows no mercy, and the West is as good as it’s ever been. Combine that with the grueling road schedule, and the Crimson Tide’s road to an undefeated season and national championship looks as tough as ever.

Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes and reporting were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.