The One Game Alabama Just Can't Win This Coming Season

Larry Burton (Panama City Beach, Fla.) There's one game this year that Alabama can't win no matter what. It is their game with the Georgia State Panthers.

Why, you ask?

This is a team that's so new and so obscure you may not have ever heard of them before their name was put on Alabama's schedule. This is, in fact, the first year they've ever had a football team.

So why can't Alabama win this game?

Because it's a no-win situation.

If they break the NCAA record for most points scored and beat them 225-0, or if they beat them 35-0, people will say one of two things: The first being, "Why didn't they beat them by 300?" and second being, "What a bunch of jerks for beating them so bad."

Just how bad is Georgia State?

Well, they've never won a game, but then they've never lost one either.

Other teams they'll play this season are Shorter, Lambuth, Campbell, and Lamar. And those teams will likely beat the devil out of them too.

There is not a player on the entire Georgia State team who would be third string on Alabama's team. Alabama's worst player would start for the Panthers.

So, before you wonder why Alabama would schedule such a game or discredit Alabama for playing this game, consider these facts.

Georgia State wanted this game. They will make more off this game than any three other games they play this year. They are playing this game for the cash. Alabama is actually doing them a favor, for which they are very grateful.

It will also a lesson in football that these young players won't soon forget.

They will be a better team for having lived through this. It will be a measuring stick to show just how much they learned this year, as this will be their last game of the season.

It will also help them with recruiting. This game will put them on the map, for better or worse. No one at Lamar can brag about playing a defending national champion in front of 100,000 people.

So, although the game is a winning situation for Georgia State, there are few reasons to see it as a win for Alabama.

Perhaps the only thing that could be counted as a win is the rest it will give the team before the Auburn game the next week, a short week at that.

Alabama, no doubt, took this game to counteract Auburn having a bye week before that same Alabama game.

With Alabama facing six SEC teams coming off a bye week, they needed an equalizer this late in the season.

But for the knock on playing such a team, the drop it will cause in strength of schedule, and the jokes that are sure to follow, the rest may make this no-win situation a little easier to swallow.

Should Alabama repeat as national champions, the 'Bama fans will quickly forget this game, if the other fans will let them.