Alabama Crimson Tide given lowest preseason ranking in over 10 years

For most college football programs, a spot in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 is a win. That's not to mention a spot in the Top 5 of the poll, which are rankings usually reserved for the elite of the elite heading into a season.

Expectations at Alabama are so high, though, that even a preseason ranking of No. 4 in the nation seems like a letdown.

That's exactly where Alabama finds itself heading into 2023, though, and to be sure, it is a unique position for Nick Saban's squad. In fact, this is the lowest preseason Top 25 ranking for the Tide in over a decade. 

It was 2009, the last time the Tide had a lower preseason ranking than in 2023. That season was Saban's third in Tuscaloosa and though Alabama started the year ranked No. 5 in the nation, the Tide finished the campaign on top. That 2009 season marked the first of six national championship runs for Saban.

After that 2009 campaign, Saban and the Tide started an unprecedented streak of entering the season ranked No. 1 in the country. In fact, it happened seven times in the next 13 seasons, including three times in a row from 2016 to 2018 and in each of the last two offseasons before this one.

If this seems like a negative take on Alabama, it's in fact quite the opposite. The Crimson Tide's dominance since Saban took over in 2007 has been unreal. So much so that an otherwise gaudy preseason ranking almost seems like a disappointment.

For what it's worth, Alabama was ranked No. 3 in the 2015 and 2020 preseasons and went on to win the CFP, so it seems rather unlikely that Saban is going to lose much sleep over this. 

The preseason rankings are the preseason rankings, but at Alabama the only ranking that matters is the one at the end of the season.